SOUND OFF! 6/12/21

The recent cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline is a wakeup call in more ways than one. Not just about the lack of cybersecurity in our infrastructure, not just about how vulnerable we are to malicious hackers, but also how we really need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels.

As soon as news of the attack got out, demand for gas spiked, as people topped off and hoarded, making the situation worse. (Putting gasoline in plastic bags? Stupid and foolish – as well as illegal. What’s wrong with a Jerry can?) Prices jumped at many stations, sometimes enough to constitute price gouging.

Some people may recall the gas pinch in 2008 after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike damaged refineries on the Gulf Coast. Drivers waited in line for hours; occasionally, fisticuffs broke out. People followed tanker trucks like ducklings. 911 operators got sick of people calling to ask where they could find gas.

The shutdown of the Colonial pipeline and resulting fuel pinch will have wide-reaching consequences. It supplies 45% of the Southeast’s gasoline and aviation fuel, which means that other shortages are looming. Lack of fuel hurts commercial transportation, which means many goods will be in short supply. As the hoary old saw says, if you bought it, a truck brought it. Even locally made goods contain materials transported from somewhere else.

If we got all of our energy from renewable sources, hackers would be less of a concern. Imagine if our homes and businesses were all solar and/or wind powered. Decentralized energy is far less vulnerable to evildoers than a single pipeline supplying a hefty portion of the petrol for a region.

Meanwhile, we need to improve the cybersecurity of our infrastructure. Ransomware attacks are particularly nasty because nearly always the victim has the choice of ponying up or losing vital data and computer systems. Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom to the DarkSide crime ring, which will just encourage other cybercriminals to make similar attacks – even though the Justice Department succeeded in recovering most of the bitcoin payment. Also, countries that harbor cyberterrorists and do not crack down on these villains need to be held accountable.

In the short run, we need to shore up our infrastructure against assaults such as the one loosed on Colonial Pipeline. In the long run, we need to kiss oil and other limited, unrenewable energy sources good-bye. President Biden’s Green New Deal will set us on that path.