FBI warns of neo-Nazi plots as attacks on Northwest power grid spike

As a string of attacks on electrical substations unfolded in Oregon and Washington in 2022, the FBI was warning utilities of white supremacists’ plots to take down the nation’s power grid

Attacks like the one in Morton are on the rise in the Northwest – there have been 15 since June, more than in the previous six years combined. The recent attacks make this region a hotspot for such activity, according to a joint investigation by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW. In most cases, the motives aren’t known. But as the FBI and extremism researchers have noted, neo-Nazis have been calling for just such attacks.

“The individuals of concern believe that an attack on electrical infrastructure will contribute to their ideological goal of causing societal collapse and a subsequent race war in the United States,” according to an FBI memo obtained by OPB and KUOW.

A Nov. 22 alert from FBI headquarters and the agency’s Newark field office warned of an increase of “threats to electrical infrastructure” from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists (“RMVE”). Those would include white supremacists and other so-called accelerationists attempting to sow chaos.

“The FBI has received reports of threats to electrical infrastructure by threat actors who espouse RMVE ideology to create civil disorder and inspire further violence,” the FBI warning noted.

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