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               Researh Sevice





Recent Presidential Trade Actions Affecting

the U.S. Power Grid



May 21, 2020

Introduction

Over the past several weeks, the Trump Administration has taken actions to limit the use of foreign
manufactured products in the U.S. power grid. On May 1, 2020, the President declared a national
emergency (E.O. 13920) invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to prohibit
certain international transactions for bulk-power system electric equipment used to operate the national
grid. On May 4, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, announced a new investigation under Section 232
of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 into whether imports of certain large electrical transformers and their
parts threaten national security. These actions may suggest a pattern, begun last year, of making use of
executive national security authorities to restrict imports of goods that may be used for critical
infrastructure (e.g., telecommunications and electrical equipment).

The U.S. Power Grid and National Security Issues
The federal government recognizes the U.S. bulk-power system as critical infrastructure, whose
disruption, corruption. or dys function would have severe impacts across critic al infrastructure sectors.
The Department of Energy (DOE) administers voluntary public-private partnerships in the electricity
subs ector to promote information sharing on best practices and common threats affecting bulk-pow er
systems. These systems enable long-distance transmission and distribution of electricity from generation
facilities to end users. In addition, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an independent
federal agency, oversees mandatory and enforceable reliability standards for industry stakeholders.

Risk assessments by subsector stakeholders have generally focused on threats and hazards that may
disable or permanently damage large numbers of high-voltage electric-power transformers (LPTs)
simultaneously. LPTs are critic al to the movement of electricity across the bulk-power system. Because
LPTs require long lead times for manufacture, transport, and installation, loss of these systems for any
reason may have severe long-term consequences for electric reliability. Experts have expressed increasing
concern about the threat of coordinated cyberattacks through the nation's networked control systems that
might significantly impair the nation's electric grid by damaging LPTs and other bulk-power equipment.

                                                               Congressional Research Service
                                                                 https://crsreports.congress.gov
                                                                                    INI 1401

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