The Stop Online Piracy Act led to the voluntary blackouts of websites like Reddit and Wikipedia, while the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act gained President Obama’s promise of a veto.

The Cybersecurity Act of 2012 was originally introduced into the Senate on Feb. 12, “To enhance the security and resiliency of the cyber and communications infrastructure of the United States.” On July 19, Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced a revised version of the legislation for consideration in the Senate, expected to reach the floor sometime this week.

The revised bill has been praised for addressing privacy concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology, such as the bill’s provisions that ensure information is passed onto civilian government agencies instead of military agencies. It also allows individuals to pursue litigation if the use of their information violates the law, a notably absent provision in CISPA.

The legislation also incorporates narrowed language regarding its provisions to create a National Cybersecurity Council from existing members of the Departments of Defense, Justice and Commerce in collaboration with members of the intelligence community and federal agencies. Authors of the bill also included a new section on “incentivizing the adoption of voluntary cybersecurity practices” by providing protection for “owners of critical infrastructure” who meet the standards of cybersecurity practices, as determined by the Council.

Unlike previous pieces of legislation geared towards cybersecurity, CSA has the White House’s approval. In a July 19 op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, President Obama urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Act, citing a serious need for comprehensive cybersecurity legislation to avoid being compromised.

“It doesn’t take much to imagine the consequences of a successful cyber attack. In a future conflict, an adversary unable to match our military supremacy on the battlefield might seek to exploit our computer vulnerabilities here at home,” Mr. Obama wrote. “This is the future we have to avoid.”

However, organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Electronic Frontier Foundation still have reservations about the bill’s language regarding monitoring and countermeasures. The EFF raises concerns that, “the bill specifically authorizes companies to use cybersecurity as an excuse for engaging in nearly unlimited monitoring of user data,” which the organization finds especially broad and susceptible to administrative abuse.

Similarly, the Heritage Foundation finds the revised legislation still provides, “far too great an intrusive federal role in defining cybersecurity standards.” Instead, Heritage calls for the legislation to prohibit, “any effort to create a new regulatory system for cybersecurity.”

With the bill reaching the Senate floor this week, the amendments in place may or may not remain in their current form, but will hopefully fulfill Mr. Obama’s words:

“It’s time to strengthen our defenses against growing danger.”

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Toronto, Canada – PEN Canada have voiced further concerns that Bill 78, passed two weeks ago by the Quebec National Assembly, constitutes a serious threat to freedom of expression. It’s vague and dangerously overbroad provisions can easily be interpreted in ways that constrain and discourage legitimate collective action and civil protest.

“The whole Bill looks thrown together,” said Charlie Foran, president of PEN Canada. “Its penalties are draconian and disproportionate, designed more to stifle free expression than protect public order. The reported mass arrests in Quebec suggest that the authorities have been given too much latitude to interpret and enforce this new law. Legislatively, it’s the equivalent of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.”

PEN believes the Bill’s prior notification requirements for demonstrations (section 16) are unreasonable and ill-suited to the realities of modern protest. Imposing penalties on organizers who fail to notify authorities “not less than eight hours before the beginning of the demonstration” would, if enforced, rule out all but the most premeditated forms of civic action.

The uncertain phrasing of section 30, which may, on its face, make it illegal to attend demonstrations that violate the provisions of section 16, also exposes individuals who attend these gatherings to fines of up to $5000 per day, or more in certain circumstances. In general, the fines provided for breach of the Bill’s provisions are grossly excessive. Taken together, these measures are easily abused by authorities and likely to result in a serious chill on freedom of expression.

Philip Slayton, Chair of PEN Canada’s National Affairs Committee, described the bill as “poorly drafted and too easily open to interpretations those permit unreasonable limitations on freedom of expression. As it stands, the situations in which the Bill’s penalties could be brought to bear on individual protesters are so vague and open-ended that they can be used to deter demonstrations that should be perfectly acceptable in a free and democratic society.”

Image Courtesy of  Pinkcandy / Shutterstock.com

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A new study estimates that in 10 years, Kentucky could create over 28,000 jobs while lessening the growth of electricity bills by passing clean energy legislation currently in front of the General Assembly. Synapse Energy Economics produced the study, which is an analysis of the Clean Energy Opportunity Act introduced by Representative Mary Lou Marzian.

“This study confirms that legislation to diversify our electricity portfolio would be economically beneficial to Kentucky,” said Justin Maxson, President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development.

“The bill would allow the state to hedge against increasing rates by making homes and businesses more energy efficient. And it would spur the creation of clean energy jobs, installing renewable energy projects and making energy efficiency upgrades.”

“The era of cheap energy is coming to an end,” said Maxson, “and it is really a question of whether we, in Kentucky, take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the clean energy economy of the future.”

The Clean Energy Opportunity Act calls for the establishment of a renewable and efficiency portfolio standard (REPS). An REPS requires utilities to obtain a small, but growing, share of their electricity from clean renewable energy and increase their energy efficiency programs. The bill would require utilities to get 12.5 percent of their electricity from renewable energy and achieve 10.25 percent cumulative savings from energy efficiency efforts by 2022.

Synapse’s study is a high level analysis of the proposed legislation’s impacts on Kentucky’s electricity bills, jobs, and economy. The study concludes that making small, but significant, steps to begin diversifying Kentucky’s portfolio over the next ten years will lower the bills of Kentucky’s residents, business owners, and industrial facilities compared to their bills without a clean energy standard.

Synapse projects that, under the REPS, average annual electricity bills could be eight to ten percent lower than under a do-nothing scenario. In addition to saving Kentuckians money, the REPS would lead to over 28,000 net new jobs over and above any jobs lost in fossil fuels and add $1.5 billion to gross state product once fully implemented in 2022.

“Efficiency and renewables are already the emerging trend in construction in the Commonwealth,” said Kentucky solar entrepreneur, Matt Partymiller, of Solar Energy Solutions in Lexington. “This report by Synapse captures what Kentucky engineers and contractors already know and what other states have already seen.

Legislation like the Clean Energy Opportunity Act will provide the tools necessary for Kentucky builders to create jobs while ensuring Kentucky energy costs stay low.”

The study’s findings are supported by what neighboring states that have passed similar legislation have experienced. North Carolina has seen tremendous growth in the number of clean energy firms operating in their state since passing an REPS in 2007. Ohio built on the strengths of its traditional manufacturing sector to start building clean energy equipment in state, and reap real economic benefits from their 2008 law.

Synapse carried out the study for the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, a Berea-based economic development organization, and the Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance, a coalition of over 50 businesses, affordable housing advocates, non-profit organizations and faith-based groups.

MACED and KySEA wanted to understand the economic impacts of an REPS in Kentucky, and a comprehensive analysis of a bill like the Clean Energy Opportunity Act has not been part of the policy conversation until now.

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