Is the "Grid" our Achiles Heel?

This from the FBI's Infragard daily news bulletin for February 4th:

2. February 4, Santa Fe New Mexican - (New Mexico) Natural-gas shortage cuts heat for 25,000. Some 25,000 New Mexicans were without natural gas February 3 after a freeze in west Texas led to rolling power outages that interrupted electricity to naturalgas compressor stations. "We had natural-gas supplies," said a spokeswoman for New Mexico Gas Company. "But we couldn't get the supply on hand out of storage and to customers because it needs to go through compressor stations." Towns without naturalgas service included Española, Taos, Questa, Red River, Bernalillo, Tularosa, La Luz, Placitas, Santa Clara Pueblo, Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo, Alamogordo, Silver City, and San Ildefonso Pueblo. Many were expected to remain without natural gas through February 4 while crews struggled to re-pressurize the lines. Town emergency personnel and officials worked to set up emergency shelters, and residents rushed to stores to buy food, gasoline, and other supplies. The governor of New Mexico declared a state of emergency and sent home all nonessential employees from state offices February 3 so thermostats could be lowered. Santa Fe Public Schools canceled all after-school activities, and schools were closed February 3. Many other private and government offices closed early in order to lower the heat. Santa Fe's low of minus 18 degrees February 3 set a record in the state, and caused further problems for those without heat. Source: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local News/Gas-shortage-cuts-heat-for- 25-000



3. February 3, Reuters - (National) Cold weather hits US natgas output, processing plants. Frigid weather across the U.S. Southwest knocked out natural gas production equivalent to nearly 5 percent of daily nationwide demand as wells froze and the cold caused problems for processing plants. At least one storage operator curbed additional draws from storage as utilities grabbed for replacement supplies to meet high heating and power demand as the unusually cold weather forced shut ins across Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Bentek Energy estimated 2.7 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas output remained offline. Spectra Energy limited additional gas withdrawals above contracted volumes from its Moss Bluff and Egan storage facilities in East Texas and southern Louisiana. At least 1.5 bcfd of production was offline in the East Texas, Fort Worth and Texas Gulf Coast basins, Bentek estimates, with at least 900 million cfd offline in the Anadarko Basin, which lays partly in Texas and Oklahoma. Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/03/gas-shutins-coldidUSN0317361420110203

Does this point up the vulnerability of our national energy grid to both terrorist attack and natural disruptions? Is it much more fragile than anyone likes to admit?