The suspected terrorist attacks on electrical substations in North Carolina are being replicated here in the Pacific Northwest.
PSE substations among five attacked in Pacific Northwest in November
By Lauren Girgis and Hal BerntonAt least five attacks at electricity substations in Washington and Oregon, including two at Puget Sound Energy substations, have been reported to the FBI in recent weeks.
Spokespeople for Puget Sound Energy, the Cowlitz County Public Utility District and Bonneville Power Administration confirmed the attacks happened in November, according to emails sent in response to Seattle Times inquiries.
The FBI declined to confirm it is investigating the attacks, but the utilities say they are cooperating with a federal investigation.
It wasn’t immediately known whether the damage to Northwest substations resulted in any disruption of power.
String of electrical grid attacks in Pacific Northwest are unsolved
BY Conrad Wilson / OPB & John Ryan
Electric substations in the region have been attacked, at least two with firearms, according to documents obtained by OPB and KUOW.
According to information obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, at least two of the incidents bear similarities to the attacks on substations in North Carolina on Saturday that left thousands of people without electricity for days.
'It was deliberate': Power grid stations in Pacific Northwest fall victim to recent attacks
Washington law enforcement sources say they received a memo from the FBI warning them about attacks to power stations in the Pacific Northwest.
By Maddie White
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Critical infrastructure across the country has been put on alert after an attack on two substations in North Carolina, an incident that cut power to tens of thousands for days.
To further understand what might be the potential motive for such attacks on the power grid, we spoke with a journalist who has spent years researching and reporting on the actions of extremist groups.
"The trope of attacking power infrastructure-- of hitting the electrical grid, critical infrastructure -- is an old tenet of the American extreme right wing," said Ali Winston, an independent journalist.
"Early on Thanksgiving morning, we did have an attack on one of our substations in Clackamas, Oregon," said Doug Johnson, Senior Spokesperson, Bonneville Power Administration. "It was deliberate-- there's no question that somebody meant to do it. It looked like they used something sharp to cut through a fence there that's designed to keep people out."
Worstell’s memo also referenced “several attacks on various substations” in Western Washington recently, “including 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, and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.”
Millions of us here in the Pacific Northwest and North Carolina are being targeted.
UPDATE:
It looks like the opposite corner of the lower 48 states is experiencing similar attacks.