Domestic Terrorism Plot on the US Grid Leads to Guilty Pleas
In February 2022, three white supremacists plead guilty to a domestic terrorism plot that was designed to take down the U.S. power grid. It was a disgusting act and really reinforces the reality that emergency preparedness in the utility industry must focus on so much more than simply bad weather.
Details of the Failed Attempt at Domestic Terrorism
The 3 people who conspired to take down the grid are in their 20’s, and, according to an official within the Justice Department’s National Security Division, “engaged in a disturbing plot to attack our country’s energy infrastructure, damage the economy, and stoke division in our society, all in the name of white supremacy.”
Two of the three individuals met online in 2019, and within weeks they started plotting their attack. The third individual joined the ranks a few months later. By Feb. 2020 they were meeting in person and learning how to fire AR-47 rifles at a driving range in Ohio. They also exchanged and agreed to wear “suicide necklaces” filled with fentanyl to ingest if they got caught. That’s right, these folks were willing to sacrifice their own lives for their “cause.”
Ultimately, each individual was assigned a substation in a particular region of the country to attack, allegedly using rifles and similar types of weapons. Their motivation? To create millions of dollars in damages, hurt the economy, and create unrest across the impacted regions. If the defendants are found guilty, they could face up to 15 years in prison which actually seems pretty light to me.
My main objective in conveying this story is basically to issue a warning to anybody that is tasked with emergency planning in the utility industry. Unfortunately, gone are the days when only the weather was a concern. Now, weather is an even bigger concern than it used to be, and on top of that we also have the added threats of cyberattacks, space weather, international terrorism and of course, domestic terrorism, among other things. Stay vigilant – we could be in for a bit of a rough ride going forward!
