Casten, 8 Colleagues Call for Funding to Address Grid Transformer Shortages
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Sean Casten (IL-06) led 8 of his colleagues in a letter urging the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Appropriation Committees to include $2.1 billion in Disaster Supplemental Funding to address the severe and ongoing supply shortage of electrical transformers and complementary grid security technologies through the Defense Production Act (DPA).
“From our ability to protect against cyber-attacks, intentional electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks or a naturally occurring geomagnetic disturbance, to our capacity to respond to foreign supply-chain disruptions, the current shortage puts America’s national security at risk, weakens the resilience of our electrical grid, and jeopardizes our decarbonization goals,” the lawmakers wrote.
In addition to Rep. Casten, the letter was signed by Reps. Connor Lamb (PA-17), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Bobby Rush (IL-01), Scott Peters (CA-52), Doris Matsui (CA-06), Mike Levin (CA-49), Jared Huffman (CA-02), and Susie Lee (NV-03).
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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