Introduction by Chuck Manto, National EMP SIG Chairman: Chuck Manto, opens the conference with an overview of InfraGard, the EMP SIG and the Dupont Summit. He introduces the topic of high-impact threats by discussing the emotional and economic difficulty of addressing large-scale disasters. He makes the comparison to Hurricane Sandy in that while we may not have the resources to deal with one more major problem, we still need to prepare for the coming storm.
Dr. Richard Andres, National Defense University, talks about the difficulty of preparing for high-impact grid threats. (Time: 28:31)
From the Dupont Summit December 7, 2012: Dr. Richard Andres, Energy Security Program Chair of NDU, was the lead host of the first comprehensive contingency planning on a nationwide collapse of infrastructure in October 2011 with InfraGard, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency and the US House Congressional EMP Caucus. The consensus from those in these workshops and exercise was that in the event of a long term nationwide collapse, outside help would not be available in a timely manner. Therefore, local communities must be more capable of providing essential services such as power, communications, food, water and sanitation locally to the greatest extent possible. This creates an urgent and strong perceived need for local power generation and storage. He shared his experience in leading these conversations and noted why it was complicated. He also answered questions about how next steps might be encouraged without provoking resistance to the conversation by sounding either “too alarmist” or extreme on the issues.
December 7, 2012. Dr. Peter Vincent Pry Discusses the efforts to protect the country from electromagnetic pulse (EMP) in a presentation titled: “EMP action. Too little too late?” (Time 11:38)
From the Dupont Summit, December 7, 2012. EMP Action, Too Little Too Late? by, Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, Executive Director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security: Dr. Peter Pry, formerly a CIA analyst and staff to Congressman Bartlett and the EMP Commission he helped launch, reviewed the history of those trying to address this issue beginning with the formation of the EMP Commission to current day attempts at legislation to address the issues.
