ABC News reported last week that federal law enforcement is investigating a series of deliberate attacks on the nation’s power grid following an act of sabotage in North Carolina that left more than ten thousand Duke Energy customers without power for several days.
“According to multiple law enforcement sources, an individual opened fire near a Duke Energy facility at the Wateree Hydro Station in Ridgeway,” reported ABC.
“The individual used what appeared to be a long gun and then sped away. No one was injured and there has been no reported damage to the station at this time. There is also no indication the attacks are coordinated at the moment,” they said.
Although the senior law enforcement officials ABC spoke with did not say whether the attacks were related to other examples of infrastructure sabotage, Michael Snyder wrote a thought provoking post in his “End of the American Dream” blog pointing up many other examples of sabotage in the past year.
Snyder notes that two days before the attack in North Carolina, a similar attack was carried out by unknown perpetrators in Oregon.
According to the ABC affiliate in Portland, two electrical substations were damaged by gunfire in late November in Clackamas County.
“Portland General Electric and the Bonneville Power Administration each had a separate substation location in Clackamas County attacked,” reported KATU.
“The utilities have not shared specific details of either attack, aside from saying they took place in late November,” they said.
According to Dept. of Energy data obtained by NBC News, there have been more than 100 deliberate acts of vandalism or sabotage carried out against American power producers. That’s more than any recent year since 2014.
As Snyder asks in the title to his post on the subject: Who is responsible for these attacks?
If federal law enforcement has identified a culprit, they’re not saying.
And you can add to that question: Why aren’t more people paying attention to this?
The potential danger of successful attacks on the power grid is severe, especially in New England where extended power outages in the middle of a harsh winter could be disastrous.
Representatives from the Maine State Police and Central Maine Power did not respond to a request for comment in the federal investigations.
