Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

1
This is the Daily Mail. Also, the NC station attacks thread sort of got side tracked or thread jacked, so here is this:
At least five attacks at electricity substations in the Pacific Northwest have been reported to the FBI in recent weeks.

The incidents came to light via a federal memo following a deliberate attack last week in Moore County, North Carolina, that left tens of thousands of people without power for days as seasonal temperatures fall.

In Washington state and Oregon, spokespeople for several energy companies - Puget Sound Energy, the Cowlitz County Public Utilities District and Bonneville Power Administration - confirmed the attacks occurred in November.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... month.html

Sniffing the wind, I think I detect a whiff of borscht.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

2
Energy experts have expressed the real need to secure the country's power grid, especially as domestic terrorist's become further emboldened to toy with the country's public utilities.
Another pressing need is that we need legislation or better legislation to address the escalating domestic terrorism threat. As in life in jail.
Need to get H.R.350 - Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 ramrodded through the senate now that dems own it. ( Yet another reason to vote democrat cuz repugs won't do it)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-con ... e-bill/350
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,”

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

7
tonguengroover wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:07 am
Energy experts have expressed the real need to secure the country's power grid, especially as domestic terrorist's become further emboldened to toy with the country's public utilities.
Another pressing need is that we need legislation or better legislation to address the escalating domestic terrorism threat. As in life in jail.
Need to get H.R.350 - Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 ramrodded through the senate now that dems own it. ( Yet another reason to vote democrat cuz repugs won't do it)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-con ... e-bill/350
Agree.Like most terrorists, even 'domestic' ones, they think blowing shit up will make some sort of difference, will 'create or encourage' some sort of back-lash, civil war. Even the Oklahoma City bombers thought that.
Although at first suspicion wrongly focused on Middle Eastern terrorist groups, attention quickly centred on Timothy McVeigh—who had been arrested shortly after the explosion for a traffic violation—and his friend Terry Nichols. Both were former U.S. Army soldiers and were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement
This crap are just dress rehearsals. trump's crew is neck deep in this crap.

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

8
tonguengroover wrote: Thu Dec 08, 2022 10:07 am
Energy experts have expressed the real need to secure the country's power grid, especially as domestic terrorist's become further emboldened to toy with the country's public utilities.
Another pressing need is that we need legislation or better legislation to address the escalating domestic terrorism threat. As in life in jail.
Need to get H.R.350 - Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 ramrodded through the senate now that dems own it. ( Yet another reason to vote democrat cuz repugs won't do it)
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-con ... e-bill/350
True. I don't know about life, but there should be a minimum of at least ten years for this.

Of course, you know it would be used against leftist activists most vigorously. I know someone who was convicted as a "valve turner" on an oil or gas pipeline a few years ago, and he got less than two years, which seems reasonable since I don't think any real damage was caused. Not to throw in completely with Matt Taibbi (who I think has gone around the bend with his hatred of the FBI and the centrist Dems), but that would be the way to bet.
IMR4227: Zero to 900 in 0.001 seconds

I'm only killing paper and my self-esteem.

Image
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Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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When we look to how the internet originally was designed, as a decentralized network that could route itself around broken nodes, we can push our Congresscritters to fund a decentralized power generation and distribution network of multiple generating sources managed by a smart grid and backed up by batteries.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

10
CDFingers wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:23 am When we look to how the internet originally was designed, as a decentralized network that could route itself around broken nodes, we can push our Congresscritters to fund a decentralized power generation and distribution network of multiple generating sources managed by a smart grid and backed up by batteries.

CDFingers
Just so long it is not designed by Texas Utilities.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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TrueTexan wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 1:49 pm
CDFingers wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 11:23 am When we look to how the internet originally was designed, as a decentralized network that could route itself around broken nodes, we can push our Congresscritters to fund a decentralized power generation and distribution network of multiple generating sources managed by a smart grid and backed up by batteries.

CDFingers
Just so long it is not designed by Texas Utilities.
Or Musk

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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F4FEver wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 7:41 am
TrueTexan wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 1:49 pm Just so long it is not designed by Texas Utilities.
Or Musk
As bad as Musk himself is, Tesla has had some success with building battery stations for electric power grids, though it is still a very young technology.

Here's a story about a Tesla battery project in Australia.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/08/austral ... packs.html

There's also a project to build something similar in Texas.
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Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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CDFingers wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:11 pm TX will resist until they blackout, then blame it on Dems who have been out of power in TX for over two decades. Then the rest of us will sell them power.

CDFingers
No, you won't sell us power because the vast majority of Texas is NOT on the national power grid. Only a very small part of west Texas is on the national grid and it isn't linked into the Texas grid. A result of this when we had the big freeze two years ago, they still had power while much of Texas froze without power.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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The reason the Texas power grid isn't integrated the rest of the country was explicitly to prevent federal regulation.

The US does not have a power grid per se, but several regional grids that are only loosely interconnected. The PNW grid is better integrated with BC than with the systems of the Midwest. Years ago a transformer blew up in eastern Oregon and it took down power over a wide region. Took a while to even get a crew out to look at the damage. I knew people who were involved in the design process to make that grid more resilient in the light of that incident. They were good at what they did. They did not have good things to say about systems out east. I mean - what was it, 2003? - a tree limb touches some power lines in Cleveland and NYC loses power for days.

These days, I think it takes insider knowledge or nation-state level actors operating with deep systems-level knowledge to take down power across a larger area deliberately, but shooting transformer cooling fins is one tool for that job. And now I have a vision of Dilbert's buddy Wally in urban commando cosplay gear taking potshots at substations. Texas would be low hanging fruit.

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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IIRC the Democrats did remove Texas from the national grid back in the 1930s, they didn't want federal control and no doubt oil and gas producers did heavy lobbying.


From a GAO October 2022 report.
The U.S. electricity grid is really three interconnected transmission grids covering the contiguous United States, as well as parts of Canada and Mexico. It is roughly divided into the western states, Texas, and the eastern U.S. and Midwest. These three interconnections operate independently to provide electricity to their regions. There are several points of vulnerability in the U.S.’s system of electricity grids. For example, grid distribution systems—which carry electricity from transmission systems to consumers—have grown more vulnerable, in part because their operational technology increasingly allows remote access and connections to business networks. This could allow threat actors to access those systems and potentially disrupt operations.

Nations and criminal groups pose the most significant cyber threats to U.S. critical infrastructure, according to the Director of National Intelligence’s 2022 Annual Threat Assessment. These threat actors are increasingly capable of attacking the grid. As the lead federal agency for the energy sector, DOE has developed plans to implement a national cybersecurity strategy for protecting the grid. However, we found that DOE’s plans do not fully incorporate the key characteristics of an effective national strategy. For example, the strategy does not include a complete assessment of all the cybersecurity risks to the grid. Addressing this vulnerability is so important that we made it a priority recommendation for DOE to address. We prioritize recommendations that need immediate attention.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)—which regulates the interstate transmission of electricity—has approved mandatory grid cybersecurity standards. But it hasn’t taken steps to ensure that those standards fully address leading federal guidance for critical infrastructure cybersecurity. For example, and similar to the above, the standards do not include a full assessment of cybersecurity risks to the grid. In 2019, we recommended that FERC consider adopting changes to its approved standards to more fully address federal guidance and evaluate the potential risks of a coordinated attack. These recommendations have not been implemented yet, leaving the grid vulnerable.

Finally, in March 2021, we found that the federal government does not have a good understanding of the scale of the potential impacts from attacks facing the component of the grid that is generally not subject to FERC’s standards: distribution systems. After identifying this vulnerability, we recommended the Department of Energy (DOE)—in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security, state, and industry partners—address risks to the distribution systems.
https://www.gao.gov/blog/securing-u.s.- ... berattacks

It's not just the source of the energy, it's the power lines, natural gas pipelines and even gasoline distribution tankers on trains and on our highways that are vulnerable.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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F4FEver wrote: Sun Dec 11, 2022 8:27 am
Eris wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:18 pm Yep. It's literally impossible for Texas to buy electricity from out of state even if we wanted to. It's really stupid.
I know easy to say, hard to do but you need to get the hell outta texass..for a variety of reasons..
I intend to. I'm looking at options right now. At the moment, Maine is at the top of the list
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Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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I heard a story on NPR this morning with one of the Homeland security people who said that .50 cal weapons have more than a 1000 meter range, so protecting sub stations from them is impossible. Suggested to be prepped with water, food, meds, and so on. Scary but true. Went out and bought beer.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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CDFingers wrote: Sat Dec 10, 2022 12:23 pm We'll see how long that lasts during a crippling cold snap or a broiling heat wave. My guess is, once the beer gets warm or the wings get cold, they'll connect up right quick "because the Democrat party don't want us to enjoy our traditional foodz."

CDFingers
We had that two years ago with the deep freeze and all we got was Teddy Cruzing to Cancun.

The other problem we had was the other producers in the state were allowed to raise wholesale rates to sky high prices due to the shortage of producing electricity and the gas, oil producers raised their prices to high levels for the big users. The whole situation was one giant Clusterf*ck from the GITGO.

We are lucky here in Denton as our power is owned by the city and we are 100% renewable energy that kept right on producing.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Five Pacific Northwest power stations attacked recently

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sikacz wrote: Sun Dec 11, 2022 3:48 pm Dumping and leaving a state doesn’t resolve the underlying issues, just less people willing to look after and protect those that cannot. Make your own choice, but leaving only makes things worse.
I am trans. There are now bills proposed in the legislature to *ban* transgender health care. If I stay I face the very real possibility of not being able to get my medecine anymore. For trans people, staying and fighting is going to increasingly become a dangerous option.
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