Should energy infrastructure info be public?

LANSING, Mich. (WOOD) — A bill introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives would restrict how much information about certain energy infrastructure would be able to become public.

The author of the bill, Rep. Kurt Heise, R-Plymouth Township, said he was approached by law enforcement and people in the energy industry to sponsor a bill that would increase the safety surrounding critical energy infrastructure.

“What I’m trying to do is strike a balance between the public’s right to know and public safety,” said Heise. “[If the bill passes] it will provide more comfort for public utilities to give us (the government) … more information with the assurance that it’s not going to fall into the wrong hands.”

“This about security for the public. This is about not putting people in harm’s way by allowing people who would like to damage their critical energy infrastructure succeed,” said John Griffin, the executive director of Associated Petroleum Industries of Michigan.

Griffin dismissed the idea that anything other than safety played a role in the creation of the bill as “just nonsense.”

Opponents say the bill would allow the government to withhold information about things like oil pipeline safety. Those in favor say that’s not the case and that they want the bill to target things like access points and blueprints.

The bill as currently worded does not specify either way.

The wording does outline what constitutes critical energy infrastructure:

“Critical energy infrastructure information means specific engineering, vulnerability, or details design information about proposed or existing critical energy infrastructure,” it reads in part.

>>Online: HB 4540 (PDF)

Proponents said it’s a public safety concern and sensitive information in the wrong hands would lead to a dangerous situation.

But David Holtz, the director of Michigan’s Sierra Club chapter, said that less information about things like oil pipelines is worse for the people of Michigan, not better.

“This is a bill that the industry is seeking and it’s in the industry’s interest to not have public disclosure of things like their pipelines,” Holtz said. “This seems not so much about security to us as some other attempt to keep things hidden.”

Heise said if the bill becomes law, it will be up to individual FOIA coordinators at each agency to determine if something falls into the critical or not.

The bill still needs the approval of both the House and Senate and the governor’s signature before it becomes law.

View the original content and more from this author here:

http://ift.tt/1JH1BlD

from critical infrastructure alliance http://ift.tt/1K92txI
via IFTTT