Heated exchange in blackout hearing
Beacon Journal staff report
FirstEnergy Corp. CEO H. Peter Burg was harshly criticized Thursday by U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who said the Akron-based utility ``should not have a license to drive a car, let alone operate a nuclear power plant.''
The following exchange took place Thursday during the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearings on the Aug. 14 blackout.
Markey, a frequent critic of the nuclear industry, put Burg on the defensive for five minutes, starting with a question about the Akron company's computer mishaps with the Blaster worm virus.
Q: After the Blaster worm incident, did FirstEnergy conduct an assessment of cyber-security at all of its other facilities?
A: Mr. Markey, I can't give you time and date, but it's my understanding we've been going through this process almost since 9/11 throughout our system in terms of looking at what the potentials are with respect to cyber-security.... I would assume yes, sir.
Q: You would assume. But you don't know?
A: I haven't asked that question, but I know our people have been going through cyber-security...
Q: You have not asked the question of what happened with the... level of cyber-security at the rest of the plants after this worm successfully penetrated the Davis-Besse plant?
A: I didn't say that, sir. What I said was, I didn't ask our people -- when they started their examination and so forth, I knew they were doing those examinations, not only at our nuclear facilities, but at our other facilities throughout our organization.
Q: Well, what did you do to ensure that all cyber-security vulnerabilities at all FirstEnergy facilities were corrected?
A: Well, in some cases -- I'm not trying to be off the subject here, but I would suggest that there are some things we're not allowed to talk about in terms of how they go about...
Q: I don't want to know the secrets. What did you order to be done?
A: I didn't order anything. It was automatically done by our people, sir, in looking at the vulnerabilities on our system. We were in concert, in this case, with the NRC. I'm sure we may have been in concert with the Homeland Security Agency in terms of what are some of the things that all companies should be doing in this area.
Q: You stated (in Thursday's testimony) that FirstEnergy experienced a computer problem, now leading up to last month's blackout. Could that have been due to the Blaster worm, which was at its height of activity at that time?
A: We really do not believe so, because the kind of software that is involved in our system control center, the kind you are now referring to, is not Microsoft based, and therefore, as I understand it, is not susceptible to that particular worm.
Q: But you don't have communications systems that rely upon Microsoft technology?
A: No, we do, sir. I didn't say that. I said the particular technology you are referring to is not Microsoft-based technology. It's almost like -- it's modeled for security purposes....
Q: According to this morning's paper, your control room operators were in the dark about what was going on within your system. You said earlier that you still don't know what exactly happened. What is to prevent, then, your computers from again misreading what the actual situation is going on?
A: We have the world's foremost expert on those kind of systems totally going over our system as we speak...
Q: So you don't know the answer to that?
A: I don't know the answer to that yet, as we don't know the answer to the entire situation.
Q: So it could happen again?
A: Anything in life could happen again, Mr. Markey.
Q: So the answer is yes. You don't know what happened and as a result, it could happen again.
Q: My time is almost up, but from what I can tell, FirstEnergy should not have a license to drive a car, let alone operate a nuclear power plant and an electricity generation, transmission and distribution system. All of the evidence here focuses on FirstEnergy as the culprit in this blackout. And you appear to be trying to shift the blame elsewhere.
There's a pattern here, Mr. Burg. You failed to properly maintain your nuclear power plant, as the Davis-Besse situation clearly indicates. You allowed a virus to infect your corporate computer systems and let it get into the data. You have been held liable by the courts for violating the Clean Air Act by spewing pollution into the air at some of your other plants. And you freely acknowledge that on the 14th of August, you had wires going down but no warning flags going up to anyone else who could be affected. And the control room, whose computers couldn't tell your operators what was actually going on.... There's a pattern here at FirstEnergy. It is a pattern of cutting corners and neglect, and it has devastating consequences not only on your consumers, but on consumers throughout the Midwest and the Northeast. And I hope that the result of these hearings will be that we guarantee that we never again in our country have a repetition of what happened on Aug. 14.
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