Who Turned the Lights Out?
Terry H. Schwadron
Dec. 17, 2022
Despite all the renewed talk of law and order, we have yet to hear a plan to contain the growing attacks on electric power substations that have plunged whole counties into darkness and cold in recent weeks.
You might think this could be an issue in which the usual divisive politics plays no role, but so far, there’s no evidence that the fragility of our very infrastructure has gotten the focused attention of Congress or a circle much wider than the power companies involved and the assigned law enforcement personnel.
Maybe it’s because guns are involved, or because no one has been killed yet. But it feels more than a little threatening.
And yet, the dangers uncovered in a series of focused and planned attacks, perhaps involving only a single individual or small group at a time, seem enormous in what they say about our national vulnerabilities. We seem to be responding faster to Ukrainian requests for artillery and protective missiles than to adequate fencing to harden our electric power stations.
NPR reports that our electrical grid has been physically attacked at least six times in Oregon and western Washington since mid-November, prompting growing alarm. At least two of the attacks are like the forced shutdown by gunfire into machines at two electric power substations in North Carolina that left thousands without power for several days. There was an attack on a South Carolina substation as well.
The caliber of the bullets in that California incident is different from those used in North Carolina, a law enforcement source told CNN.
The various power companies say they are working with the FBI, which so far has declined to confirm that it even is investigating, though local word is that subpoenas are being issued to persons not named publicly.
No Official Explanations
Since no one is explaining much, citizen and conspiracist justifications are all over the map. In North Carolina, the local press in Moore County have reflected regional unhappiness over the planned staging of a drag show in a local theater — interrupted by loss of power. A friend there says his Republican neighbors blame leftist antifa groups, though there has been no such indication.
In the northwest attacks, a security specialist said that online extremist groups are calling for the attacks and providing instructions on how to do it.
In the silence, local news organizations are carrying citizen analysis that these attacks are matters of protest of some kind or forerunner experimental probes of our infrastructure weaknesses towards a wider set of attacks.
CNN says that investigators are examining writings by extremists on online forums encouraging attacks on critical infrastructure and recent disruptions of LGBTQ+ events across the nation by domestic extremists.
CNN added that anti-government groups have been using online forums to urge followers to attack critical infrastructure, posting even a 14-page guide tracking an attack on substation in California in 2013 that destroyed 17 transformers and cost Pacific Gas and Electric $15 million in repairs.
In each case, officials have said the attack was “deliberate” and involved fouling specific equipment that might require special technical knowledge.
There are thousands of such substations around the nation. The national grid apparently is vulnerable to any disabling of combinations of a relatively small number of substations.
Assessing the Danger
Apparently, you can fire a gun at an unarmed substation and hit a number of machines that won’t cut power, meaning that you need to know where to aim.
In Washington, the attacks included “setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits by tossing chains across the overhead buswork (overhead wires), and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.”
Security experts cannot determine or won’t say if the incidents were related or unusual in number, but said they showcase a need for the energy industry to be vigilant and prepared.
There has been plenty written about threats from cyber-attacks on the nation’s electrical plants, but these are physical attacks — and apparently more elusive.
There are thousands of such substations linked by grids to serve vast portions of the country.
If it is a protest movement, it’s not at all clear what the point is. If you have a gripe, you can’t get it addressed unless you tell us what it is. If it is chaos, you are after, congratulations, you seem well on your way.
Clearly the incidents are showing that there are vulnerabilities in that set-up that are subject to one guy with a wire cutter and a gun.
In the meantime, the official silence is not helping anyone. Are the lights on in Congress?
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