Weekend Economists Make War on Charlie Wilson August 22-24, 2014

[DemReadingDU]

68. What if the electric power grid is taken offline?

This event occurred in April 2013, but not widely reported until February this year

2/11/14 Sophisticated but low-tech power grid attack baffles authorities
They came after midnight, two or more armed individuals so deft that they cut telecommunication cables in an underground vault and outsmarted security cameras and motion sensors at the power substation in a remote corner of Santa Clara County.

At daylight, FBI agents began poring over time-lapse photographs from the surveillance cameras. But the photos revealed only staccato muzzle flashes from a semiautomatic weapon and sparks as shots hit rows of transformers. There was not a face, not a shadow, of who was doing the firing.

The shooters disappeared into the gloom minutes before the first police car arrived.
The military-style raid on April 16 knocked out 17 giant transformers at the Metcalf Transmission Substation, which feeds power to Silicon Valley. The FBI is still working the case, and agents say they are confident it was not the work of terrorists.
What they do not have is a motive, fingerprints or suspects.

But theories are piling up. Was it a modern-day Monkey Wrench Gang bent on eco-terrorism? Was it a test of the vulnerability of the U.S. electrical grid? Was it a dress rehearsal for a larger attack to come?
more...
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211-story.html#page=1