Congress echoes Trump EMP concerns, Iran weapon feared

President Trump has made preparing for an electromagnetic pulse attack cool.

Long met with eye-rolling, the growing threat of an EMP attack on the nation’s electric grid and military bases by Iran or other foes has suddenly gone mainstream following Trump’s March executive order to assess the risks of a man-made or natural EMP hit.

The latest evidence was in the just-passed 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, which adopted Trump’s action and ordered the National Guard to draw up a plan to thwart disaster from an EMP.

And several states are moving even faster. Wyoming just produced its blueprint to respond to an EMP assault that could knock out electricity, water services, hospitals, ATMs, cellular phones, and even vehicles for months.

“These are big and very important results,” said Peter Pry, a longtime champion of EMP preparation and adviser to the White House and military. “Things are taking off. This is a significant change, in a positive way,” he told us.

For proponents of developing protections from EMP, the fight has been a decadeslong slog. Trump has taken the threat seriously, though it’s unclear if his national security team shares his concerns, especially after EMP preparation proponent John Bolton was ousted as the national security adviser.

Also, some insiders fear that a strong lobbying campaign from the electric utility industry, which does not want to spend money to upgrade its infrastructure, is working to dull the president’s executive order.

Still, the defense spending bill is a big embrace of Trump’s call for action, and EMP proponents hope it helps to keep the president’s foot on the accelerator.

It gives the National Guard nine months to tell Congress what states have to respond to an EMP attack and what the guard will do “with particular focus on a multi-State electromagnetic pulse event.”

The military has led the effort so far. Some top leaders have expressed concerns that Russia, North Korea, China, and Iran are working on nuclear EMP weapons that, when detonated above the United States, could knock out the electric grid for up to a year.

The federal government is also worried about a natural attack from solar storms, which has happened several times before.

Wyoming’s plan was presented as a “living document” meant to be updated with new protection plans, said Lynn Budd, the director of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.

She noted that the likelihood of an attack is low, but not preparing could lead to a deadly disaster.

“Return to pre-event power reliability may take months or years for some customers,” Budd warned in a 92-page report shared with us.

A recently declassified report from Pry warned that several U.S. enemies could join to launch a nuclear EMP attack. Pry suggested the death toll could be staggering.

“Nine of 10 Americans are dead from starvation, disease, and societal collapse. The United States of America ceases to exist,” warned the report declassified by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack.