Congress should act quickly to renew a crucial cybersecurity program that helps electric cooperatives protect the grid from rapidly changing cyberthreats, a Wisconsin co-op leader urged a House panel Tuesday.
“Securing the grid is essential to national security, but the threat landscape is evolving faster than ever,” Nate Melby, vice president and chief information officer at Dairyland Power Cooperative, told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy.
“While cooperatives are committed to this fight, we cannot confront sophisticated nation-state actors alone.”
Melby asked for the subcommittee’s help to reauthorize the Department of Energy’s $250 million Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Program, which prioritizes funding for co-ops with the greatest need for support and those that serve military installations and other key facilities.
Cybercriminals and some foreign nations, including China, “are among the most active and persistent threats” to the electric grid, he said.
“RMUC bridges the rural resource gap, ensuring that the security posture in rural America is as robust and formidable as anywhere else in the nation,” Melby said.
“This is accomplished by helping electric cooperatives make critical investments in three key areas: the people, processes and technologies necessary to secure the grid.”
Last fall, he said, DOE announced $80 million in RMUC awards that would directly support more than 400 cooperatives’ cybersecurity programs, including those of generation and transmission co-ops like Dairyland as well as distribution co-ops.
“This funding includes $3.5 million for Dairyland Power Cooperative, which will allow us to work with 20 of our distribution co-ops to invest in technologies that will boost cyber defenses across our shared systems.”
Unfortunately, he said, La Crosse-based Dairyland and other co-op awardees are still waiting for those funds, which would empower them to hire cyber professionals, strengthen information-sharing and use more advanced technologies.
Melby said moving these resources from the pipeline to the field will “expand and expedite the collaborative work to improve cyber defenses that is already being done between co-ops, statewide associations and NRECA.”
There is an estimated $160 million left in the overall RMUC program, which will lose its authorization from Congress in less than a year, Melby said.
“Given the importance of this program to electric cooperatives and our nation’s security, NRECA is strongly urging Congress to reauthorize this program and update the legislation to improve program access for co-ops with limited resources.”
He said not-for-profit co-ops “operate on thin margins in difficult terrain,” making it important to pair effective policy with resources rather than with burdensome bureaucracy.
“Every dollar we spend comes directly from our members’ pockets, so we need solutions that empower us to protect our communities without adding financial strain,” Melby said.
“We strongly urge the committee to advance the RMUC reauthorization to ensure we can keep the lights on for 42 million Americans.”
Erin Kelly is a staff writer for NRECA.