LVXXU

QER Recommendations (continued)
Support the updating and expansion of state energy assurance plans: DOE began a State Energy
Assurance Planning Initiative in 2009 with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009. The President’s Fiscal Year 2016 Budget proposes $35 million to establish a State Energy
Assurance grant program to finance state, local, and tribal governments to continue this important
task. DOE should continue a multi-year program of support for state energy assurance plans,
focusing on improving the capacity of states and localities to identify potential energy disruptions,
quantify their impacts, and develop comprehensive plans that respond to those disruptions and
reduce the threat of future disruptions.
• The specific objectives of this initiative should be as follows:
1. Strengthen and expand state, local, and tribal energy assurance planning and resilience
efforts by incorporating innovative technologies and measures to improve resilience.
2. Build state in-house energy assurance expertise.
3. Build regional energy assurance capability to allow states, localities, and tribes to better
identify the potential for energy disruptions, quantify the impacts of those disruptions,
and develop comprehensive mitigation and response plans.
4. Address the disproportionate impacts of potential energy disruptions on vulnerable or
underserved communities.
• Energy assurance plans funded under this recommendation should be continually updated to
reflect changing conditions and new threats and should be tested for adequacy in simulations
or exercises to maintain staff capacity to implement the plans.
• As part of updating the state energy assurance plans, states would be encouraged to work
with industry and each other to identify locations where energy infrastructure is particularly
vulnerable to disruption (e.g., by physical attack) and craft effective strategies to reduce
vulnerability and coordinate preparedness and response plans.
• As part of these plans, states should also assess needs for backup electricity at retail gasoline
stations along emergency evacuation routes.
• DOE should encourage strong intergovernmental coordination to ensure state and local
energy assurance plans interface with one another, as well as with Federal and private sector
disaster and emergency response plans.
• Having a state energy assurance plan that meets a threshold of completeness and rigor
should be an eligibility requirement for other kinds of Federal funding related to energy
infrastructure.
• This program should be supported on either a 2-year or 3-year cycle.
On a 3-year cycle, the estimated support needed for this program over 10 years is $350 million. On a
2-year cycle, the estimated support needed for this program over 10 years is $500 million.
QER Report: Energy Transmission, Storage, and Distribution Infrastructure | April 2015 2-39