More than a decade ago, the attack on Ukraine’s energy grid felt like a surprising watershed, proof that cyber operators could reach through keyboards to shut off the lights. This marked a shift into a new phase of geopolitical conflict: one defined by cyber-attacks manifesting physical world effects, particularly against critical infrastructure. Since 2015, there have been ransomware attacks against major oil systems, healthcare systems, and water systems in the United States and across the globe. Cyber criminals are conducting reconnaissance and pre-positioning for future operations, and are coordinating actions on a larger scale, like the recent cyber-attack against Poland’s energy sector. 

Today, the threat to critical infrastructure, particularly in the United States, remains a top priority for industry and government. Adversaries are more patient, better resourced, and increasingly exploring how to enhance their attacks using advanced AI capabilities. Many critical infrastructure operators also are working to integrate AI technologies into their cyber defense plans and operations. The race between defenders and attackers is on and it is unclear what side will win. 

One key to successfully protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure is to establish and sustain intra-sector, inter-sector, and public-private partnerships. These distinct partnership types can help organizations operating and supporting critical infrastructure effectively and efficiently prepare for, respond to, and recover from cyber-attacks.

Intra-sector partnerships are perhaps the most efficient and effective approaches given an industry’s relatively shared threat landscape, security tool usage, and operational risks. When organizations within a critical sector share threat intelligence on potential or actual cyber-attacks, the entire industry can strengthen resilience to prevent threat actors from successfully scaling their attacks. Within the electric power sector, the Cyber Mutual Assistance (CMA) Program serves as a decades-long proven model of collective defense. Following the 2015 attack on Ukraine’s electric grid, a group of CEOs within the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) convened to discuss ways to prevent a similar outage, and CMA was born. Today, CMA is a group of security experts representing more than 210 electric and natural gas entities that stand ready to provide mutual assistance in the event of a significant cyber incident. This kind of support is vital in a shifting threat landscape where it is increasingly difficult for a single organization to defend itself against a growing number of malicious actors. 

In addition to mutual assistance, it’s important for organizations within a sector to participate in joint exercises that challenge assumptions, strengthen relationships, and build resilience. For example, the Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center hosted its eighth biennial GridEx exercise. This cyber and physical security exercise convened thousands of experts from across the electric power industry and government partners to assess and improve their responses to simulated attacks on the energy grid. GridEx helps to inform organizational planning and budget priorities that can strengthen the overall resilience of the U.S. energy grid.

Inter-sector partnerships are a natural expansion from those within an industry. No critical infrastructure sector has a monopoly on security threats or the experts to help defend against them, and many facets of U.S. critical infrastructure are interconnected and interdependent. As Volt and Salt Typhoon revealed, threat actors aim to burrow into multiple critical sectors with the goal of having the ability to disrupt U.S. economic and national security. Therefore, it’s imperative to work across sectors to better understand how adversaries are targeting critical infrastructure and to better strengthen it. 

Another recent example is the 2024 CrowdStrike outage that made computers inoperable in organizations across the transportation, financial, and healthcare sectors. 

Finally, critical industries and government must renew their commitment to public-private partnerships. The Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency launched the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative in 2021 to unify public and private sector cyber defenses through real-time, bi-directional intelligence sharing operational planning. Two years later, the Department of Energy piloted the Energy Threat Analysis Center (ETAC) to fuse industry data with government intelligence so cyber defenders can identify, analyze, and mitigate threats together. ETAC experts from public power utilities, electric cooperatives, investor-owned electric companies, and oil and natural gas entities analyze threat intelligence in real time, assess potential impacts to the energy sector, and develop risk mitigations that are broadly shared by Information Sharing and Analysis Centers to energy providers across the country. These examples of public-private partnerships leading to operational collaboration can be extrapolated across other critical sectors.

America’s adversaries are constantly enhancing their cyber-attacks and increasingly looking for ways to compromise critical infrastructure. We must continue to meet these challenges head on by leveraging intra-sector, inter-sector, and public-private partnerships. Cyber resilience is the goal; partnership is how we achieve it.
 

Left to right: NARUC President Ann Rendahl, NCTA President and CEO Cory Gardner, EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney, NRECA CEO Jim Matheson, American Water Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Norton, AGA President and CEO Karen Harbert, Florida Commissioner Mike La Rosa.

Industry-government coordination was front and center during the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Winter Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., in early February.

Only two weeks on from Winter Storm Fern, a historic winter weather event that impacted more than 200 million Americans and prompted the largest mutual assistance activation the United States had seen since Superstorm Sandy, mutual assistance and storm response were fresh on the minds of the of state commissioners, federal officials, electric company leaders, and other stakeholders who attended the annual gathering.

“The effort and the coordination among federal, state, local officials, our members, working across the industry, was amazing,” EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney said during a panel discussion, highlighting the significance of pre-positioning crews and resources “days before the storm hit.”

More than 65,000 workers from America’s electric companies braved frigid and hazardous conditions to restore power to impacted communities. The scale of this effort required regular and close communication with a range of stakeholders, Maloney said, highlighting industry coordination through the CEO-led Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) and regional mutual assistance groups, which was critical to ensuring a safe and efficient response.

“The grid is the most important engine in America. If the grid doesn’t work, America doesn’t work,” Maloney said, noting that companies are actively investing to make the grid more resilient to threats like winter storms. “Our members will be investing more than $1 trillion in the coming years to make it more reliable, more resilient, and more affordable.”

Industry response to Fern was a driver of conversation throughout the NARUC summit. During a separate keynote, Under Secretary of Energy Alex Fitzsimmons, director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, highlighted the federal government’s work through the ESCC to ensure crews and resources deployed to the areas that needed them most.

“The bulk power system held up, and we should be proud of that. We all should be proud of that effort,” Under Secretary Fitzsimmons told the NARUC audience.

Now two weeks on from a historic winter weather event that blanketed more than 200 million Americans in ice, snow, and frigid temperatures, industry and government leaders have been outspoken about the importance of close and regular communication ahead of and during Winter Storm Fern.

“Before the winter storm began, through the mutual assistance program run through the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), we had 65,000 utility workers ready to go, not just to make repairs in their own service territories, but across the entire affected area,” Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly during a recent press briefing.

Deputy Secretary Danly noted that “we had crews moving from state to state offering assistance,” which is why workers were able to respond so quickly to “a peak of just about 1 million outages.”

“The bulk power system held up, and we should be proud of that. We all should be proud of that effort,” Acting Under Secretary of Energy Alex Fitzsimmons, director of the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response, said during a keynote address at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Winter Policy Summit.

Under Secretary Fitzsimmons stressed the “strong partnerships” the federal government maintains through the ESCC that helped facilitate response to a storm that impacted more than 200 million Americans.

““The effort and the coordination among federal, state, local officials, our members, working across the industry, was amazing,” EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney said during a NARUC panel discussion.

Tens of thousands of workers from at least 44 states were active throughout the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic in recent weeks, working through snow and ice to perform damage assessments and begin restoration work when it was safe to do so.

“The impact from this storm cannot be overstated, and the industry’s response in the wake of Fern was extraordinary,” EEI Senior Vice President for Energy Security and Industry Operations Scott Aaronson said during a recent United States Energy Association briefing. “There is a culture of mutual assistance in this industry.”

Aaronson noted that the energy industry was working “in lockstep, from the earliest stages of the storm,” with the federal government and with state and local partners to ensure an efficient restoration process. He stressed that cross-industry partnerships are vital to restoring power to customers.

Aaronson also underscored how EEI member companies’ investments in grid resilience and smart grid technologies—in part to meet growing energy demand from AI, data centers, and the onshoring of manufacturing—enabled a faster restoration process.

“This forward planning has allowed us to better meet growing demand, and also to lessen the impact of and quickly respond to extreme weather events,” he said. “Resilience investments matter.”

The electric power industry in January activated its largest mutual assistance effort since Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

More than 65,000 workers from at least 44 states deployed in response to Winter Storm Fern, according to EEI. The storm brought frigid arctic air, heavy snowfall, and icy conditions to more than 200 million Americans.

Through the CEO-led Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council, EEI and industry leaders coordinated with the highest levels of government, including at the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, to ensure unity of effort in responding to the storm and restoring power to impacted communities.

EEI recently joined the American Public Power Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association in issuing a joint press release highlighting the breadth of industry response, explaining the mutual assistance process, and outlining how electric companies partner during extreme weather to keep customers safe.

Read the full release below, and visit eei.org for the latest updates on Winter Storm Fern.

More than 65,000 workers from 43 states have been mobilized and are assessing damage and restoring power where it is safe to do so. That’s comparable to the historic response and recovery efforts seen during Hurricanes Helene and Milton in 2024.

“America’s electric companies are really well positioned to deal with this,” EEI President and CEO Drew Maloney said Monday morning on CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange.”

Maloney highlighted the planning that began last week with the highest levels of industry and government, including with senior Administration officials, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, and dozens of state and local leaders, to ensure unity of effort in impacted communities.

“It’s really a unified effort,” Maloney said. “I think it’s really important for everyone to understand the coordination with federal, state, and local officials … to get power up as quickly as possible during this historic ice storm.”

While ice poses unique challenges to restoration, tens of thousands of lineworkers are braving frigid conditions across several states and will continue working around the clock to ensure power is restored to everyone who is able to receive it.

Watch Maloney’s full interview below, and visit the EEI Storm Center for the latest storm updates.

Standing in a field surrounded by dozens of 40-foot power poles, hundreds of lineworkers, and thousands of spectators, Eversource Energy linemen Bob Michaud and Jason Henley looked and spoke as if they’d just wrapped another day at the office.

In some sense, they had.

“We did pretty well this year,” said Michaud, underselling his and Henley’s ability to scale power poles to retrieve eggs, place them in their mouths, and descend without cracking them more quickly than any of the roughly 300 teams they competed against in mid-October at the 41st International Linemans’ Rodeo.

The annual gathering in Bonner Springs, Kan., celebrates the lineworking trade and the more than 100,000 brave men and women who build and maintain America’s energy grid as electrical lineworkers. A group of 19 investor-owned electric companies sponsored this year’s event, and they and many others regularly send their best crews.

Teams of lineworkers compete in a series of skills challenges—including the pole climb, or “egg climb,” and the hurtman rescue, in which lineworkers retrieve suspended manikins to simulate assisting an injured crewmember. Contestants also compete in a series of mystery events that aren’t revealed until the night before the rodeo.

“The weather played in our favor. It was a nice warm day, maybe a little too hot,” Michaud said following his and Henley’s first-place finish in the pole climb. “Thank God it didn’t rain. We’ve had that in the past. We’ve had freezing cold weather. That all plays a part.”

Michaud and Henley have 42 years of collective experience between them maintaining energy grid infrastructure and 30 trips down to Kansas for the International Lineman’s Rodeo. They were far from the most senior lineworkers competing for bragging rights and recognition at the annual post-rodeo banquet. But, they were hardly the youngest, either, with apprentice linemen in their 20s also testing their mettle against peers from across the United States and Canada.

“This rodeo is a celebration of a craft that many would never venture into,” Virgil White, a distribution line construction supervisor at Evergy, said to rodeo participants during the opening ceremony. “Life literally is energized by the work provided by each one of you.”

‘We Do This Work Every Single Day’

Adam Beene, a restoration field operations manager with Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), competed in his 12th rodeo over the weekend. He and many other participants attended company-specific or regional rodeos earlier in the year to qualify for the International Lineman’s Rodeo. Interest in competing is high among lineworkers, competition is fierce, and team spots are limited.

Although there’s some practice associated with individual events, Beene stressed that there isn’t much competitors see at the rodeo that they don’t see out on the job.

“What we do every day is great training. We do this work every single day as linemen building and maintaining powerlines,” Beene said.

Beene joined PG&E 24 years ago, describing lineworking as a “great trade that’s been really good for me and my family.”

“My grandpa was a lineman. My dad was a lineman. My brother is a foreman. Combined, we have something like 150 years total service in the field as linemen working for PG&E,” Beene says. “It’s a lifesaving service that we do. We keep society going.”

Those familial ties are common among lineworkers, adding to the sense of pride and tradition associated with the job.

“My father-in-law worked on a line crew. I found it very interesting, because I like working outside and working in the elements,” says Sandy Barnhill, a 37-year lineworking veteran and distribution engineering manager at Duke Energy. “If you love helping people, helping your community, and being an integral part of your community, this is a great career.”

Barnhill and others note that, although the rodeo is meant to be a fun and informative display of skill, the work is not easy, and the risk of injury is ever-present.

“Anybody that gets into this trade, if you have a passion for linework, you’ll excel. But, make sure you have the passion for it. This is a deadly job,” says Eversource Energy’s Michaud.

To drive home the emphasis on safety, judges at the rodeo watch contestants closely and deduct points if they perform maneuvers deemed to be unsafe.

“What makes anyone good at this job is safety. That is the most important thing,” says Chad Guthrie, director of distribution construction operations at OG&E. “There are years of training, and it’s not just training that happens one time early in your career. It happens constantly throughout your career.”

‘Today, We Have Focused on Today’

Barnhill, whose Duke Energy team placed first in the 45-and-up senior division this year, first attended the rodeo in 2001 but hasn’t made it every year. Based out of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., near Raleigh, Barnhill and his colleagues are regularly called when storms strike the East Coast, which isn’t uncommon this time of year.

That was the case in 2024, when Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated portions of Duke Energy’s service territory and the broader East Coast. Instead of traveling to Kansas, Barnhill and his colleagues were focused on recovery and restoration, particularly in western North Carolina, where storm damage was catastrophic.

“We worked all in the mountain zone, around Spruce Pine, Burnsville, Asheville, back towards Black Mountain. The devastation that was there was mind blowing—something like I had never seen,” says Barnhill, who grew up in the Asheville area. “I’ve worked storms my whole career, going all the way back to Hurricane Hugo in 1989. This one was more impactful than anything I had ever seen.”

An army of more than 50,000 workers from all over the United States and Canada deployed to the Southeastern United States last year to assist the response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Crews spent weeks—in some cases months—helping communities rebuild following the storms. Those efforts and the devastation those crews worked through was still top of mind for many in Kansas.

“Today, we have focused on today. We have been ecstatic over the course the hurricanes and storms have taken this year,” says Barnhill, noting that this has been a quieter storm season on the East Coast.

Mutual assistance work is a hallmark of the lineworking trade, and, although they work in dangerous and difficult conditions, many lineworkers develop friendships over the years that they’re able to spark up again at events like the rodeo.

“You get all the companies out here that you go to work with during storms and hurricanes. There might be times you meet people during storms or at other events, so there’s a lot of camaraderie here,” says Chris Bristol, an OG&E manager of distribution construction. “There’s a little bit of trash talking that goes on. But, it’s all camaraderie.”

‘It’s a Big Family’

Todd Scheitel, a MidAmerican Energy transmission and distribution construction manager from Council Bluffs, Iowa, pulled into the parking lot of the rodeo grounds at 4:15 a.m. the day of the competition.

“We started cooking breakfast to get meals ready for all the competitors, the support staff, the family members,” said Scheitel, stepping away from the grill he would later use to cook a lunch of hamburgers and bratwurst for the MidAmerican Energy group and the broader team from parent company Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Scheitel is a former rodeo competitor who attended his first event in 2003. He’s now one of hundreds who travels to Kansas each year in a support role, helping handle food and logistics for lineworkers competing in what many of them consider to be their Super Bowl.

“My favorite part of this rodeo is the camaraderie, the family, the friends. There are some guys who I only get to see this time of year,” he said. “To see the guys I used to work with, climb poles with, do transmission and distribution work with, it’s fun. It’s a big family.”

It’s a big family event, to be sure. Many companies encourage lineworkers to bring their loved ones to join in the festivities and get a front-row seat to what they do on the job. There are hayrides, bucket truck lifts, and children's events throughout the day to keep what could be the next generation of lineworkers interested and entertained.

“A good part of the rodeo is that you get to show the skills you learn on the job. The best part of the rodeo is that your families get to see what you do every day,” says OG&E’s Bristol. “There’s such a family atmosphere here. You’re competing to show that you’re better than everyone else. But, your family gets to see it, as well. That’s the best thing for me.”

As rodeo competitors, judges, support crews, families, and spectators began packing up for the day, Eversource Energy’s Henley stood in front of the poles he and Michaud had successfully scaled earlier that day.

Henley speaks with humility—until asked about his son, a 21-year-old overhead lineman apprentice in his first year on the job.

“Every day he comes home, it’s great conversation. We get to talk about what he did, and it brings me back to when I was an apprentice,” Henley says.

Henley’s son was not at the International Lineman's Rodeo this year but has recently competed in smaller rodeos. “I think I was more nervous than him” during his first event, Henley says. “He did a great job.”

“I just want to put my stuff on and go climbing with him. He’s doing his thing and working his way up, and I hope he does just as well or better than me,” he says.

Hundreds of lineworkers gathered around journeyman Paul White in a field outside of Kansas City, Mo., on a crisp, clear morning in late October, eagerly awaiting the beginning of the 40th annual International Lineman’s Rodeo. With the moon still high in the sky, spotlights and head lamps illuminated the rows of tents and dozens of 40-foot power poles flanking White as he addressed the crowd.

“Everyone here this morning is connected to the electric power industry. And, the demand for electric energy never rests,” said White, a longtime journeyman lineworker and rodeo competitor who delivered introductory remarks and helped emcee this year’s event. “The lineman trade has a proud history that demands a specialized skill set.”

That skill set was on display over the course of the four-day event, which drew competitors from across the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Canada, Brazil, and beyond. Rodeo organizers estimated more than 5,000 spectators and nearly 1,100 lineworkers traveled to Kansas City for the competition.

The event is a friendly competition among some of the most skilled lineworkers in the world, and it celebrates the brave men and women who regularly work in dangerous conditions to maintain and repair the critical energy infrastructure that powers our nation.

“Whether linemen are working under sunlight, moonlight, or spotlight, they get the job done, and electricity continues to flow,” said White. “The satisfaction of the job goes well beyond a paycheck.”

‘It’s Not About How Fast You Get Up and Down’

EEI was a sponsor of this year’s event, which was hosted by Evergy, an EEI member company. EEI and its members historically have maintained a strong presence at the rodeo, with nearly half of the three-person teams competing at the 2024 rodeo hailing from investor-owned electric companies. Other competitors were contractors or represented public power utilities and electric cooperatives.

“I love it. I’ve been blessed over the years to have some great teammates, and I have friends I’ve met from all over the country out here,” said Jason Novak, an Ameren Illinois lineman and 23-time rodeo competitor whose team ended up placing first overall at this year’s competition.

Despite having “rodeo” in its name, the International Lineman’s Rodeo does not feature lassos, bulls, or barrel racing. In place of horses and 10-gallon hats are harnesses and 50-foot bucket trucks, as lineworkers compete in a series of skills challenges. In one event, they rescue dummies dangling from power lines. In another, they race up power poles while attempting not to crack an egg held in their mouth.

Lineworkers are divided into three-person teams and compete across four events, each of which tests skills they pick up on the job. Two events in the competition aren’t revealed until the weekend of the rodeo, making it more difficult to practice in advance. A separate scoring track for apprentice lineworkers also allows those who are just beginning their careers to test their mettle among their peers.

Participants are scored on how quickly they complete the challenges but also on how well they adhere to safety protocols and best practices.

“Everything we do here is about safety. It’s not about how fast you get up and down that pole,” said Dale Warman, co-chairman of the International Lineman’s Rodeo Board of Directors and a retired director of field operations at Kansas City Power & Light, which is now Evergy. “You have to be safe, and, if you’re not, you’ll have points deducted. It’s a big part of your scoring.”

It’s an event that participants train for all year—on the job and through separate, smaller competitions, since most companies only have a certain number of rodeo slots available.

“We have our own rodeo every year in August, and all of the Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E) guys will compete against each other. We take the best of the best from our rodeo up here to compete,” said Tyler Scott, a supervisor at OG&E who was attending his fourth international rodeo.

Reflecting on Mutual Assistance

Warman recalls the inaugural lineworker rodeo that he helped set up 40 years ago. Twelve teams initially were slated to compete, but a dispute between teams before the rodeo began meant that only eight actually participated. That’s compared to the nearly 230 three-person teams and nearly 400 apprentices who traveled to this year’s event—numbers that would have been higher had Hurricanes Helene and Milton not struck the southeastern United States only a few weeks prior, prompting one of the largest mutual assistance efforts in the electric power industry’s history. 

“That’s why some of the guys aren’t here today. They’ve been down there answering the call,” said Scott. “It’s something that all of us take pride in. I was just in Georgia for 17 days.”

Scott and his colleagues at OG&E joined an army of more than 50,000 workers from nearly every state in the country to assist with storm recovery and restoration efforts following Helene. When Milton struck the Gulf Coast of Florida two weeks later, crews were diverted to Florida. That led to dozens of would-be rodeo competitors dropping out at the last minute because their work in Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas was not yet finished.

“Another supervisor who was supposed to be here is down in Florida helping with the hurricanes, so I stepped in to help run things this year,” said Jesse Trumble, a senior operations supervisor at National Grid, who helped to coordinate and organize National Grid’s competitors from Massachusetts and New York. “That’s part of the job, and it’s a great service to the people impacted.”

Those unable to attend the rodeo because of the mutual assistance response were acknowledged throughout the weekend. Reflecting on their colleagues’ absence, many attendees recalled previous mutual assistance deployments to Louisiana, Puerto Rico, Texas, and up and down the East Coast in response to hurricanes and strong storms. Although many acknowledged such assignments can pull lineworkers away from friends and family for days or weeks on end, there was a shared sense of pride in helping restore power to those in need.

“We get calls all the time and at all hours of the night. We can be gone from our families a lot. But, it’s part of the trade, and I’d want the power to be on in my home for my family. So, I’m happy to make sure that happens for someone else,” said Novak of Ameren Illinois.

‘Line Families Help Other Families’

Novak’s Ameren Illinois team scored a perfect 400 points throughout the course of the rodeo, completing skills challenges with the fastest time to win first overall. A second Ameren Illinois team, two teams from Pacific Gas & Electric, and a team from Southern California Edison also placed in the top 10 overall, and 20 of the top 50 journeyman lineworker teams hailed from investor-owned electric companies.

“This event is the best of the best. We get some practice time, but a lot of training for this we do on our own,” said Novak. “This is high competition. You need to be fast, and you need to be clean.”

For Novak, though, winning first overall was only one of the weekend’s highlights. While many competitors were practicing and preparing for the challenges ahead, Novak spent the day before the rodeo raising money for Climbin4kids, a fundraising organization that he helped found in 2021 to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Thanks to generous support from Ameren Illinois, the International Lineman’s Rodeo Association, Novak’s fellow rodeo competitors, spectators, and vendors at the event, Climbin4kids raised nearly $84,000 during the rodeo.

“Line families help other families,” Novak said. “That’s what we do.”

Although the rodeo is planned by and for lineworkers, Warman said it has always been structured with service and community in mind, since both are so intrinsically tied to the lineworker profession.

Warman is also proud that the atmosphere of these events is “always all about family.” Play areas and activities are set up for kids throughout the weekend, as many lineworkers bring their families to watch them compete. In some cases, it’s their loved ones’ only real opportunity to see the intricate and, at times, dangerous work that they perform every day.

“I appreciate the family atmosphere of the company and this rodeo and the camaraderie of the linemen,” said Jason Grier, an operations manager at CenterPoint Energy. Grier is a 17-time rodeo competitor who now heads CenterPoint Energy’s rodeo committee.

“It’s a real brotherhood, and I love that aspect of it,” he said.

Rodeo organizers also noted that the event is a great opportunity to showcase a rewarding and in-demand career path to children and young adults in attendance. Although some rodeo competitors had family connections that sparked their interest in the industry, many said they stumbled into the job through a recommendation from a friend or after seeing a job posting.

Scott of OG&E recalled a line foreman living a few houses down from his family growing up. He said he was inspired to become a lineworker after seeing his neighbor and others hard at work during an ice storm while he was in high school. He hopes to offer that same inspiration to others.

“I watched those guys work outside all day to get the lights back on in our house. It’s just something I always knew that I wanted to do,” he said. “I have a son and two daughters, and I would suggest anyone get into this line of work. I take a lot of pride in doing this work in my own community when my own friends and family don’t have power. People will always need electricity. It’s very fulfilling.”