"Political extremists have attempted a number of attacks on electrical infrastructure and substations in recent years, with a goal of sowing chaos and civil conflict.
The plots have repeatedly failed, however, and sociologists say that even if they do succeed, the kind of disasters they seek to create rarely result in members of the population turning on one another — though they could prove costly, and deadly.
In July, two former Marines, both active in an online neo-Nazi community, were sentenced to prison for a plot in which they stole military equipment from Camp Lejeune as part of an intended attack on a power substation in the Pacific Northwest. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the plotters, Liam Collins and Paul Kryscuk, “conspired, prepared, and trained to attack America’s power grid in order to advance their violent white supremacist ideology.”
The year before, officials said they foiled another, similar plot, this one targeting the grid in Baltimore. The two alleged plotters, Sarah Beth Clendaniel and Brandon Russell, were described by the FBI as “racially- or ethnically-motivated extremists,” and officials said they targeted Baltimore in large part because of its status as a majority-Black city."
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