From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov

Transcript for: Natural Disasters & the Electricity Grid - Director
Summary

Description: Frank Rusco discusses our June 2022 report on the impact of
natural disasters on our electricity grid. The Department of Energy has
taken some steps to improve training, technology, and local capacity to
respond to disasters and support long-term electricity grid recovery.
However, DOE doesn’t have a comprehensive plan for coordinating response
and recovery responsibilities within the agency.

Related GAO Works: GAO-22-105093.  Electricity Grid: DOE Should Address
Lessons Learned from Previous Disasters to Enhance Resilience 

Released: June 2022

[ GAO's Frank Rusco, Director, Natural Resources & Environment, speaking
to the camera ] 

[ Frank Rusco : ]

Power outages caused by natural disasters have affected millions of
customers and cost billions of dollars. The growing severity of
wildfires and extreme weather events has contributed to an increase in
the frequency and severity of power outages in the U.S.

The Department of Energy has taken some steps to improve training,
technology and local capacity to respond to disasters and to support
long term electricity grid recovery.

But DOE does not have a comprehensive plan for coordinating recovery and
response activities within the agency. In addition, it's not clear how
they've used lessons learned from previous disasters to prioritize
recovery efforts. 

We recommend that the Department of Energy create such a plan to address
these issues. For more information, please visit GAO.gov.

[ End ]

For more info, check out our report GAO-22-105093 at: GAO.gov