The claim: Joe Biden ‘gave the network to China’ through his executive order from Keystone Pipeline
Some social media users link the power outages in Texas to one of President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders regarding a policy instituted by his predecessor.
In a lengthy Feb. 18 text message from Facebook, it is alleged that “Biden handed over the network to China” through his executive order from Keystone Pipeline and that one of Biden’s alleged engineers who was supposed to be working on the power situation in Texas, five worked as an engineer in China for many years. years.
“Millions of Texas families are pulling Biden’s EOs this morning and finding something buried in the Keystone Pipeline (SIC) EO,” reads the report, claiming that the president lifted security on the U.S. power grid for 90 days the same day he closed. the Keystone pipeline.
Attached to the post is a picture and biography of Yunzhi Cheng, a suspected senior planning engineer at the Electrical Reliability Board of Texas.
The user includes a link to the Federal Registry that points to one of former President Donald Trump’s previous executive orders that “secured our power grid by giving China no access.” It also included an invalid page in the White House and an April 2014 document from the Department of Energy entitled “Large Power Transformers and the U.S. Electricity Network.”
USA TODAY contacted the Facebook user for comment.
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Bid executive order and the bulk power system
On his first day in office, Biden signed the ‘Executive Order on the Protection of Public Health and the Environment and the Restoration of Science to Overcome the Climate Crisis.’
The directive was part of a series of executive orders aimed at addressing climate change and reversing the Trump administration’s environmental and energy policies.
The order commands federal agencies and executive departments to review existing regulations, revokes the construction permit for TC Energy Corporation’s Keystone XL oil pipeline in March 2019 and imposes a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leases at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Prior to that, on May 1, 2020, Trump signed an executive order declaring foreign cyber security threats to the U.S. electricity system a national state of emergency. This allowed the Energy Secretary to prohibit the acquisition, import, transfer or installation of power equipment. Trump’s order defined bulk power equipment as control chambers, power stations, nuclear reactors, capacitors, large generators and more.
The executive order does not specifically mention countries. According to a 2019 global threat assessment by then-US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, China, Russia and other countries used cyber-methods to spy on US infrastructure, Reuters reported.
In December 2020, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette issued a restraining order to “reduce the risks that entities associated with the People’s Republic of China pose to the Nation’s bulk power system.”
Biden’s executive order on Jan. 20 places a 90-day suspension on Trump’s bulk power policy and instructs the Secretary of Energy to review Trump’s order and consider whether to issue a replacement order.
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Order does not give China control over the power grid
Biden’s executive order only temporarily suspends Trump’s order on May 1, and that doesn’t mean China can have access to U.S. electric grids for 90 days.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the suspension prohibits suppliers from installing the equipment as set forth in Brouillette’s banning order in December.
During the 90-day suspension, ‘the department’s commitments to electricity security issues will continue and our commitment to mitigating threats to critical defense facilities and the electricity sector remains unchanged’, reads a press release from the Department of Energy.
In addition, the Texas Electric Reliability Board, a nonprofit, manages the network of electrical suppliers, the Texas Interconnection, which serves 90% of the state, according to Scientific American.
A search of Yunzhi Cheng, the man mentioned in the report, led to a inactive Linkedin profile who said he was the supervisor of operational stability analysis at ERCOT. USA TODAY contacted ERCOT for comment.
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What really caused the power outages
There are many factors, including the extreme energy needs and overloaded frozen utilities that led to the nationwide power outages in Texas, reports TODAY.
The US is divided into three electric grids. One covers the eastern part of the country, the other the western part, and the third is the Texas grid, which covers almost the entire state.
Daniel Cohan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, told the USA TODAY that the huge demand for energy in the midst of the recent winter storm has exceeded the energy supply needed to heat homes. According to Cohan, a combination of natural gas, some coal and a nuclear power plant did not meet demand.
“Plants are optimized to work under our typical and extreme summer conditions, but they are not as well prepared and designed for extreme cold,” he said.
Our rating: false
The claim that President Joe Biden’s executive order on the climate crisis includes that China should give control of the American power grid is FALSE, based on our research. Biden’s executive order has instituted a temporary suspension of Trump’s administration orders for 90 days so officials can evaluate and review them. The suspension bans utilities from installing equipment as set out in the former energy secretary’s ban and does not give China access to the power grid. Furthermore, the Texas power grid is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Our sources for fact checking:
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WhiteHouse.gov, January 20, Executive Order on the Protection of Public Health and the Environment and the Restoration of Science in Addressing the Climate Crisis
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WhiteHouse.gov, January 27, FACTS: President Biden takes executive action to tackle climate crisis abroad, create jobs and restore scientific integrity in federal government
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Trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov, May 1, 2020, Executive Order on the Security of the United States Bulk Power System
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Reuters, May 1, 2020, Trump signs order to protect US electricity system: Department of Energy
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U.S. Department of Energy, December 17, 2020, Secretary of Energy Sign Order to reduce safety risks for the country’s electrical grid
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US Department of Energy, February 9, to secure the executive order of the United States Bulk Power System
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Scientific American, February 19, Massive power outage could eventually cause Texas to connect to national power grids
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USA TODAY, February 16, ‘Massive Failure’: Why are millions of people in Texas still without power?
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This article originally appeared in the US TODAY: Fact check: Reports falsely claim that Biden gave China control of the power grid