Very interesting, SMM, thank you for sharing.
According to the article, the magnetic field near the black hole should be a few hundred times stronger than the Earth's (which make it anywhere from say 50 to 150 G, depending). For comparison, the solar dipole is about 1 G, and the magnetic field in interstellar space is typically measured in microgauss. The field at the pulsar's (actually, magnetar's) distance from the black hole is apparently a few milligauss, still orders of magnitude stronger than the interstellar magnetic field. This is extremely strong. The authors aren't lying, this is a very exciting find.
It should be a fairly straightforward calculation to determine the magnetic energy density (and thus, total magnetic energy) in the Galactic centre, which can then be compared to the total gravitational energy, and which could also be used to determine the strength of the electric current, and from this the electromotive force. I wonder if the electromagnetic field alone might be able to explain the observed proper motions of stars around the 'black hole'? See e.g. this video:
_http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_gggKHvfGw
