In January, the Governor’s Energy Office published a Maine Energy Plan accompanied by a technical report (Maine Pathways to 2040). These are impressive documents, readily available on the internet, which should be required reading for anyone interested in Maine’s future. The heart of our state energy plan is to have 100% clean energy (non-carbon based) by 2040.

It’s an extraordinarily ambitious goal.

Recent actions by the current federal administration to deny any new wind power projects in federal waters and to withdraw approval for a major wind project already being constructed demonstrate that, unfortunately, Maine is not fully in control of its energy future.

There is reason to doubt that Maine will reach a 100% electricity powered by “green” sources by 2040. But it does seem clear that by 2040 or 2050, if enough electricity can be generated, and if the transmission and distribution grids can be upgraded to support the increased amounts of electricity needed (both vastly expensive and technically challenging tasks), gas- and diesel-powered vehicles and fuel-oil or propane furnaces and heaters will be prohibited or strictly regulated within 25 years in the state of Maine.

Aside from all of the community planning, economic development and conservation issues that will arise in this green energy effort, there has been little public consideration of how this new state green energy system will be protected, both from the increased violent natural events brought on by a warming planet, and protected from both domestic and foreign parties that may see Maine’s energy infrastructure as a target.

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Maine has made more progress in thinking about its energy future and taking direct action toward specific goals than most states. And in spite of federal interference and lack of support, Maine continues to work with Canada and other Northeastern states to coordinate grid improvements.

In-state, Maine is providing direct support for installation of heat pumps and EV charging stations, while also collaborating on advanced wind energy projects. While I am grateful for and impressed by what is being accomplished, under extraordinarily difficult conditions, I am increasingly concerned that the Maine Energy Plan focuses so much on how to make our electrical supply “green” that it does not adequately consider how to keep it protected.

It is my impression that most people living and working in Maine don’t fully grasp what is being proposed, and what is starting to happen. The Maine Energy Plan envisions that by 2040 or 2050. there will be few if any fuel oil-fired furnaces, and no more gasoline- or diesel- powered cars or trucks, which means that there will be few if any gas stations and few if any heating oil delivery services. The only energy for our homes and businesses will be electricity.

The impact that this change will have upon jobs, community structure and appearance (now is the time to start planning for what should and should not happen with all of those intersection-located gas stations) will be immense.

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During the past 10 years, as  I have driven on I-95 from Portland to Augusta, I have been intrigued by the growing number of solar farms visible along the side of the road. On occasion I have driven onto side roads, which allow a direct close view of some of these large solar panel installations, and have also looked at them using Google Earth.

It is interesting to see the evolving design of solar panels, the structures they are mounted on and how the arrays of panels are connected to the grid. What is also interesting to see, from Google Earth and site visits, are the various ways that people could gain access to these solar farms.

I make no claim to be a security expert, but it seems obvious that two or three people equipped with splitting mauls, axes and each carrying 5 gallons of gasoline could easily get over the low fences surrounding the sites or break through the gates with a reinforced vehicular grill and, within 20 minutes, render any of those sites inoperable for between six months and two years, if the sites were even deemed by their owners to be worth reinvestment as solar farms.

As Maine becomes more dependent upon electricity as its only source of residential and commercial energy, the infrastructure supporting that single source becomes an increasingly attractive target both for the individual seeking revenge for some real or imagined wrong and for military or paramilitary groups seeking large-scale civil disruption. Such a disruption could be either a distraction to camouflage some other action or to diminish the state or the nation’s capacity to function. Russia, very early in its war with Ukraine, targeted Ukraine’s energy production and distribution infrastructure.

Last month, I went to a medical appointment next to Thompson’s Point, on Sewall Street. There is an electrical substation there, where high- voltage electricity from the transmission grid is switched to low-voltage electrical power and fed to the local Portland area distribution system.

The security for this vital component of economic and residential activity is a high fence with rolled strands of barbed wire and a front locked gate. However, for the two hours I was on Sewall Street, that gate was open with no vehicle or visible personnel on the site. The fence would probably have been effective until the late 1990s. Now almost any truck and many SUVs could easily push open the surprisingly flimsy gate, and anyone with training and some simple equipment could bypass the rolled barbed wire. Major harm could be achieved without even entering the compound.

It is my deep concern that existing physical security for Maine’s vast electric power infrastructure, designed for a less informed, more law-abiding society that no longer exists, and at a time when the electricity supply system was not so essential for the functioning of everything, is now inadequate.

Added to my concern is that new security threats exist. Anyone wanting to damage a substation, an electricity-generating dam or a solar farm can gain essential planning knowledge from any cellphone, tablet or computer using such free tools as Google Earth. Several firms are eager to sell drones with night-vision cameras and software that would allow highly accurate maps to be prepared from undetected night drone surveillance flights.

I won’t go further, but terrorist groups around the world have discovered and are using internet-provided information to cause vast harm: information that into the 1980s was esoteric, hard to find and very often highly classified. Why will such attacks never happen in Maine? Or, perhaps, when will that happen in Maine?

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What to do about this?

Establish a task force that includes military, police and others knowledgeable in the disruption of power supply systems and hopefully, in the defense of such systems, complete a review of best security practices across the country and around the world. Then develop guidelines and standards; hold education and training workshops. Then start requiring that any new electrical source being connected to the grid must be reliable, repairable and physically secure.

And review every existing connection to the grid, giving operators of those sources a time specific by which security improvements must be in place, in addition to providing technical assistance and, whenever possible, financial help or incentive. Then inspect and, as necessary, repair or upgrade those systems every year. This should become one of the highest priority capital improvement projects of the state, of New England and the nation.

The Governor’s Energy Office is, in my opinion, doing a really good job and the governor deserves great credit for such strong support of the office’s efforts. And the GEO staff is looking at the durability of the transmission and distribution grids, as well as what kind of changes will be needed when and if Maine relies not just upon a relative handful of electricity generators, but literally hundreds if not thousands of homes, institutions and businesses connecting their solar panel arrays to the grid.

The 15 years between now and 2040 are going to require immense amounts of work, skill, money and luck, along with increasing awareness and support from the general population if the energy plan is to have any chance at success.

But all of this good and expensive work will be wasted if the transmission lines, substations, distribution lines and sources of electricity are not physically secure. This immense, complicated, absolutely essential, and in many instances highly vulnerable infrastructure needs to be physically secure from the byproducts of a warming planet. Those include more high wind events, more ice, sleet and hail damage, more and higher tidal surges and rain bombs when warmer air holds more moisture and drops several inches of rain in an hour.

But they must also be secure from deliberate actions to disrupt and destroy. When everything is connected through the “grid,” and when everything depends solely upon electricity, whether green or not, it takes relatively little to have a big, powerful, dangerous impact. And unfortunately, in the world we presently live in, that makes all parts of Maine’s electrical infrastructure prime targets for those who wish to cause harm.