Energy Commission Takes Steps to Guard Power Grid

America's top federal energy regulator is taking major steps to protect the nation's power grid.

Speaking before the Senate Energy Committee Tuesday, Cheryl LaFleur, acting chairwoman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,  said they are "wiping and scrubbing all databases."

The move immediately follows a government investigator's report revealing unsettling information that certain officials failed to protect the grid's vulnerabilities. They had casually allowed widespread access to a document containing specific physical threats to the grid.

The commission has also employed the efforts of a non-profit organization that oversees electric reliability in hopes to improve security standards by June of this year.

"A mandatory standard will reinforce these efforts and ensure that all owners and operators of the bulk power system take such important steps where appropriate,"  LaFleur said.

Last month, the Wall Street Journal cited a secret federal analysis that warned if a coordinated terrorist attack on nine key sub-stations was successful it could cause catastrophic power outages across the country.