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Threat of power grid attacks prompts call for tougher criminal penalties

By Mark Shenefelt - | Feb 22, 2023

MARK SHENEFELT, Standard-Examiner

Authorities and power company reps sounded an alarm on Monday, Aug. 2, 2021, about young people climbing high-voltage power transmission towers to swing in hammocks, an activity known as hammocking. The tower shown here in the foothills of North Ogden carries lines with 46,000 volts of electricity.

SALT LAKE CITY — Worries about terroristic attacks against power plants and other critical infrastructure led a Senate committee on Tuesday to boost a bill carrying tougher penalties for offenders.

Rep. Carl R. Albrecht, a Republican representing parts of four Southern Utah counties, said increased vigilance is warranted for threats to electrical, natural gas, water, telecommunications, mining and other critical infrastructure.

A federal government report last month said domestic extremist groups appear to increasingly view attacking the power grid as a means of disrupting the country. Albrecht said the Department of Homeland Security noted a 71% increase in such attacks last year

House Bill 370 would take critical infrastructure penalties out of the criminal mischief code and enact a new section that in some cases carries first-degree felony penalties.

“Motives are kind of unclear” in many attacks, Albrecht said. Regardless of the reasons, “these incidents are pretty critical and lives are at stake,” he said.

Albrecht, who retired from the electric power industry in 2014, said an incident two years later in the area underscored the dangers. Someone shot up a substation, blacking out power in south-central Utah and northern Arizona. The power company had a spare transformer on a trailer, so the outage was limited to 10 hours. “It could have been days,” he said.

“There are some really crazy people out there,” said Sen. Michael Kennedy, R-Alpine, who voted for the bill but wondered if it might be too broad.

For example, a husband wanting to see his dying wife in a hospital COVID-19 area could be charged with a first-degree felony for interfering with nurses, he said. Being “thrown away for life because of a health care kerfuffle” would be wrong, he said, adding that the behavior is “not appropriate but not life threatening.”

Defense attorney Mark Moffat said the bill is so broad it could be used to prosecute strikers or social justice protesters for allegedly interfering with critical infrastructure operations.

Rocky Mountain Power lobbyist Thom Carter applauded the bill, saying it is “finding a way to punish in a more important manner people who attack our modern way of life. This is a critical step to try to slow down a movement — people are just interested in causing chaos.”

The Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee recommended the bill be considered by the full Senate.

Albrecht said he would continue to work with those who have concerns before the bill reaches final passage.

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