Authorities Fear Extremists Are Targeting U.S. Power Grid

A string of mysterious attacks on power stations across the U.S. has rekindled fears about the vulnerabilities of America’s electricity infrastructure, which security officials

have warned presents a growing target to extremists and saboteurs. Attacks and suspicious activity at U.S. power stations reached a decade-long high last year, with more than 100

reported incidents in the first eight months of 2022, according to a TIME review of the Department of Energy’s most recent data, which runs through August. Since then, there have

been at least 18 more publicly reported attacks or potential attacks on substations and power plants in Florida, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington. The tally

includes at least half a dozen at Duke Energy facilities in Florida and at least six others on electrical substations in the Pacific Northwest in November and December. In one

attack on Thanksgiving, two intruders cut through the fencing around a substation in Clackamas County, Ore., and “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of

equipment and cause significant damage,” according to an incident report. And in the most high-profile incident, intruders breached the gates and opened fire on two Duke Energy

substations in Moore County, N.C., in early December, damaging equipment in what local authorities called a “targeted” attack that cut off the power for more than 45,000

people. It’s not clear who’s behind all this. But the surge has alarmed federal officials and security analysts, who warned last year of “credible, specific plans” by

violent domestic groups to attack the power grid. Violent conspiracies focused on targeting and destroying energy infrastructure have become one of the top themes on extremist

social-media platforms and messaging apps. In each of the last three years, law enforcement has foiled plots by right-wing extremists designed to sow chaos by attacking America’s

electrical infrastructure. Now, officials say, the rise in incidents suggests the perpetrators may be drawing inspiration from one another, fine-tuning strategies to pursue

potentially more damaging copycat attacks. Each incident—and each suspect that escapes undetected—further emboldens a determined cadre of criminals and highlights the U.S.

power grid as a target. “Domestic terror groups understand that citizens losing power from gunfire or sabotage is an easy way to receive media attention, which they crave,”

says Brian Harrell, a former Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), who tells TIME he expects a significant increase