I dunno, I think this is a somewhat legitimate issue. There's probably going to be another large solar flare on the scale of the Carrington event eventually and being prepared to recover from broken electronics and electrical systems in its wake isn't such a ridiculous notion.

I definitely do doubt that we're going to have to worry that much about terrorists using an EMP strike. I'd expect a nation with nuclear capability would be much more likely (like Schwarzkopf suggested doing in 91).