Is the power grid vulnerable to terrorists? FEC chair raises alarm

thisnumbersdisconnected · Feb 7, 2014

Fox News: Lawmakers push to protect electric grid after report on attack

Lawmakers are pushing to impose federal standards for protecting the country's electric grid from attack in the wake of a new report about a sniper assault on a California electrical substation last year that has raised fears the power grid is vulnerable to terrorism.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said she and fellow senators plan to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has jurisdiction over the electric grid's reliability, to "set minimum security standards for critical substations."

The April 16, 2013 the attack on Pacific Gas & Electric’s Metcalf transmission substation involved snipping AT&T fiber-optic lines to knock out phone and 911 service, and firing shots into a PG&E substation, causing outages. The assault had not been widely publicized until The Wall Street Journal reported new details in a story on Wednesday.

The FBI is the lead agency in the investigation and an agency spokesman told the newspaper it doesn’t think the incident was a terror attack. However, Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, called it "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the U.S. power grid that has ever occurred."
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Even if it wasn't a terrorist attack, the methodology of the gunmen was scary enough to raise questions about how vulnerable the grid really is. Two gunmen went under a highway through a power culvert, cut fiber optic cables carrying phone and Internet service, then fired over a hundred rounds into transformers and other equipment that caused $16 million damage. But short of putting armed guards at every substation, I'm at a loss to understand how they're going to improve security. If a terrorist finds the right substation, an attack like that could bring down the grid across multiple states. It's impossible.

JohnDeereFan · Feb 7, 2014

thisnumbersdisconnected said: ↑

Fox News: Lawmakers push to protect electric grid after report on attack
Even if it wasn't a terrorist attack, the methodology of the gunmen was scary enough to raise questions about how vulnerable the grid really is. Two gunmen went under a highway through a power culvert, cut fiber optic cables carrying phone and Internet service, then fired over a hundred rounds into transformers and other equipment that caused $16 million damage. But short of putting armed guards at every substation, I'm at a loss to understand how they're going to improve security. If a terrorist finds the right substation, an attack like that could bring down the grid across multiple states. It's impossible.
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There was a terrorist attack on a California substation in December and it was hardly reported on at all.

saturneptune · Feb 7, 2014

JohnDeereFan said: ↑

There was a terrorist attack on a California substation in December and it was hardly reported on at all.
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Thanks you doing your part to retake this country.

thisnumbersdisconnected · Feb 7, 2014

JohnDeereFan said: ↑

There was a terrorist attack on a California substation in December and it was hardly reported on at all.
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That's the one the FNC story and I spoke of.

Is the power grid vulnerable to terrorists? FEC chair raises alarm

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