, Columnist
Colonial Hack Shows U.S. Must Diversify Its Oil Reserves
A distributed network of strategic product stores could have alleviated the impact of the cyberattack.
Gas lines grow after pipeline shuts.
Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Last week’s cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, which delivers gasoline, diesel and jet fuel along the U.S. east coast, is being seen as another wake-up call — not just for the owners of energy infrastructure, but for everyone who relies on it, too.
The trouble came less than three months after a winter storm knocked out a large part of the Texas power grid — a very different, but much more consequential, disruption to the U.S. energy system. It’s become clear just how vulnerable the country’s energy supply is to threats.