Watching Government: Systems and weather events

March 31, 2014
The question was how much the federal government could do to make US oil, gas, and electricity systems less vulnerable to weather events linked to global climate change, and more resilient during such events. The answer: Only indirectly.

The question was how much the federal government could do to make US oil, gas, and electricity systems less vulnerable to weather events linked to global climate change, and more resilient during such events. The answer: Only indirectly.

"In general, the federal government has a limited role in directly adapting energy infrastructure to the potential impacts of climate change," the Government Accountability Office said in a Mar. 4 report.

Key federal entities can play important supporting roles that influence private companies' infrastructure decisions, it continued. Those federal entities "are initiating steps to begin adaptation efforts within their respective missions," the report said.

But private companies that own energy production, transmission, and distribution operations make the final choices. Federal entities can influence those decisions by providing information, regulatory oversight, technology research and development, and market incentives and disincentives, the congressional government watchdog service concluded.

It said assessments by the National Research Council—one of the National Academies of Science—and the US Global Climate Change Research Program found that US energy infrastructure "is increasingly vulnerable to a range of climate change impacts—particularly in areas prone to severe weather and water shortages."

Oil and gas production and processing operations are often located near US coasts, making them vulnerable to severe weather and rising sea levels, the report noted. "Fuel transportation and storage infrastructure, including pipelines, barges, railways, and storage tanks, is susceptible to damage from severe weather, melting permafrost, and increased precipitation," it added.

Severe weather or water shortages can affect power generation, while transmission and distribution systems can feel growing pressure from rising temperatures, the report said.

Two kinds of options

It said options to reduce such vulnerability fall into two broad categories: hardening and resiliency.

"Hardening measures involve physical changes that improve the durability and stability of specific pieces of infrastructure—for example, elevating and sealing water-sensitive equipment—making it less susceptible to damage," it explained. Resiliency measures such as backup generators allow energy systems to continue operating after being damaged and help them recover more quickly, the report indicated.

Companies that produce, transmit, and distribute energy obviously have examined their systems since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 to find specific ways to make them less vulnerable.

GAO's report said the US Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and other agencies also have begun taking steps through project-specific activities such as research and development and evaluating siting and licensing decisions under their jurisdiction, as well as through broader agency-wide assessments and interagency cooperation.

Government's role here may be limited. But it's not idly standing by.