DOE urges antitrust protection for oil industry security effort

By the OGJ Online Staff

WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 9 -- A US Department of Energy official said Tuesday that energy companies should be given legal protection to cooperate on security measures.

Ms. Lee Otis, DOE general counsel, testified at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on energy security measures.

Much of the hearing focused on security for electricity and water installations controlled by the US government. The committee is due to mark up the legislation Wednesday.

Otis said DOE supports a section of the bill that would authorize energy industry sectors to form cooperative associations to gather and communicate information to avoid or correct security problems.

The legislation would give the companies a limited antitrust defense, similar to the one that allows them share data with the International Energy Agency without the government suing them for collusion.

Otis said, "Sec. 6 would go a long way toward calming another of industry's oft-expressed fears -- that the sharing of information among companies, which is essential to addressing and correcting critical infrastructure vulnerabilities, might subject them to antitrust liability."

She said DOE also may ask Congress to give it authority to authorize private sector groups to set critical infrastructure security standards. "As we envision it, different organizations would be established for each sector of the energy industry -- electric power, oil, and natural gas -- although more than one organization might be appropriate for a given sector."

Another section of the bill would require DOE, in cooperation with the Justice Department, to establish a criminal background check system for company employees in "sensitive" jobs at critical energy infrastructure facilities.

Otis said that program might be administered better at the state or local level. "Even the industry representatives who have called for action on this subject specifically note that they do not favor the substantial federal government role that this provision may contemplate," she said.

Another section of the bill would prohibit any federal agency from releasing data that would reveal a specific, identifiable weakness or vulnerability of a critical energy infrastructure facility to a physical attack.

Otis said, "The government needs more ability that it has currently to protect the information we are given," but added, "there is a delicate balance that must be maintained between the protection and the release of information."