[WildRose]

Anyone remember Wiebo Ludwig?

Some wonder if the fracking industry in Alberta may produce another anti-oil activist like him:

http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2012/ ... bo-ludwig/

[Graeme]

Harper Govt Makes Moves to Silence Canada's Leading Environmental Groups

In both the United States and Canada, activism against tar sands, pipelines and climate change has soared in recent years.

But while President Obama has encouraged citizens to "stand up and speak up" to demand change on energy, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's administration has tried to silence critics of pro-tar sands policies.

In the most recent evidence, seven influential environmental organizations have become the subject of rigorous audits by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Activists allege that the scrutiny is an attempt by the Harper administration to subdue tar sands opponents as decision time looms for pipelines needed to bring Alberta's landlocked oil to market—the Texas-bound Keystone XL and the Northern Gateway to the Pacific Coast of British Columbia.

"Canadians are starting to understand that the government has overstepped and overreached in its attacks against environmentalists and scientists," said Tzeporah Berman, a Vancouver-based environmentalist and co-founder of the activist group ForestEthics. "We're seeing a growing grassroots movement as a result. … People are angry."

The prime minister's office directed requests for comment to the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). Noël Carisse, a spokesman for CRA, said that since 2012 "the CRA has conducted additional review activities focused on political activities. Audits are being conducted in addition to our regular audit activities, and will include charities from across the entire spectrum of charitable activity."

The revenue agency is auditing the environmentalists for possible abuse of their nonprofit charitable status, which exempts them from paying taxes and allows donors to claim contributions as tax deductions. Canadian law states that nonprofits can only use 10 percent of their resources for political advocacy work. The CRA is investigating whether the groups exceeded this limit.

For decades, Canadian nonprofits interpreted political advocacy to mean they couldn't endorse candidates or elected officials. Like in the United States for tax-exempt organizations, support for or criticism of government policy was customary.

"They are seemingly reinterpreting what they perceive as being political activity," said Tim Gray, executive director of Environmental Defence, one of the green groups being audited. "It is a shifting landscape."

insideclimatenews

[KaiserJeep]

Last year in what was then declared an act of "vandalism", somebody first cut a number of fiber optic cables, and then damaged several oil-filled transformers at the PG&E Metcalf substation in San Jose.

I remember the incident and the way it was reported last year, and this article is typical of that coverage:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/04/16/gunshots-cause-oil-spill-at-san-jose-pge-substation/

The Metcalf Transmission Substation is less than two miles from my house. It is located in a small valley called Coyote Valley which in turn is just South of the much larger Silicon Valley. There are two installations, the PG&E power substation described above and a CALPINE peaking power plant comprised of natural gas fueled turbine generators, the Metcalf Energy Center.



Rather to my surprise when I read the current electronic issue of IEEE Spectrum magazine, I found out that the same incident had been labelled "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" by IEEE Spectrum and the Wall Street Journal:

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/the-smarter-grid/attack-on-california-substation-fuels-grid-security-debate

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579359141941621778

Tip: Whenever the WSJ asks you for a subscription (I have a print subscription) you should search on the full text of the article name, as many of their articles are reprinted in multiple publications.

I'm not so sure that I agree with the severity assessment here (the burned Colorado ski lodge seems a lot more serious), but I was distinctly surprised to find out that I lived practically next door to the place the "eco-terrorist" attack had occurred. This clearly indicates a policy of playing down and minimizing the reporting of such incidents.

[Loki]

Try again Nancy, ain't no one saying nothing about "eco-terrorists." More hysterical nonsense from you. Give it a break.

[KaiserJeep]

Try again Nancy, ain't no one saying nothing about "eco-terrorists." More hysterical nonsense from you. Give it a break.

You should have read the linked article before inserting your size 13 into your pie hole:

"The former Federal Regulatory Commissioner, Jon Wellinghoff, told the Wall St. Journal it was "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" in the U.S."

Have a nice one

[AndyA]

What does "Eco" mean?

[careinke]

What does "Eco" mean?

Ecological

[Loki]

Try again Nancy, ain't no one saying nothing about "eco-terrorists." More hysterical nonsense from you. Give it a break.

You should have read the linked article before inserting your size 13 into your pie hole:

"The former Federal Regulatory Commissioner, Jon Wellinghoff, told the Wall St. Journal it was "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred" in the U.S."

Have a nice one

You must have missed the "eco" part of "terrorist' when you cut and pasted. Try again.

And never mind that the FBI doesn't consider it a terrorist attack. Most likely disgruntled workers since they seem to have known the layout of the substation.

Any other conspiracy theories you'd like to expand on? Maybe the moon landing or 911 truth? Or how the Delta smelt will genocide the human race?

[dohboi]

So now there are three threads on the boogie man of "eco-terrorism." Shouldn't they at least be merged?

[Keith_McClary]

Tip: Whenever the WSJ asks you for a subscription (I have a print subscription) you should search on the full text of the article name, as many of their articles are reprinted in multiple publications.

I couldn't find a non-paywalled site, but I ran across this comment:

I was grounding a network transformer yesterday and a drunk bum threw a empty bottle in the manhole. My first thought was terrorist.
http://www.electriciantalk.com/f2/wsj-a ... 56/index4/

Probably just some unusually dumb criminals trying to steal copper, or perhaps some drunken rednecks exercising their constitutional right to shoot at stuff.

[KaiserJeep]

It's too bad I have to be so explicit, but to understand why it's considered a terrorist incident, read the WSJ text.

1) Click on the WSJ article, cut and paste the title text into a search engine.

2) The first hit should be the full illustrated text of the original article. There is one pop-up window above that to close before you read it.

3) The AT&T trunkline was not the only service disrupted. Control of the South valley SmartGrid was also compromised by the isolated cell towers.

[Paulo1]

They had a 20 minute segement on this attack on PBS newshour last week. Around the US there is drastic upgrading going on with sub-station security including hard defenses around transformers, etc.

They did not call this 'eco terrorism' on the program, and this was by the folks in charge of the security changes. They simply called it terrorism....motivation is not really known. Extreme vandalism seems more like it, but then so is setting forest fires.

Paulo

[Pops]

If a group were to make drain plugs in the very large transformers at a dozen or so critical substations around the country lots of lights would go out. Not sure how readily those things are repairable (if at all) but this would surely be a big deal even if for a short time.

Not sure where the "eco" part comes in.

[Tanada]

If a group were to make drain plugs in the very large transformers at a dozen or so critical substations around the country lots of lights would go out. Not sure how readily those things are repairable (if at all) but this would surely be a big deal even if for a short time.

Not sure where the "eco" part comes in.

I think it all boils down to how quickly the safety systems shut things down. The oil being drained is coolant, if the transformer system detects overheating and shuts off the power then all they have to do is replace the plug, refill with oil and Viola' the system can restart over about 12 hours in steps. On the other hand if the transformers overheat and the oil catches fire all over the ground the situation is completely different.

[Pops]

I think that was the reason for cutting the phone wires wasn't it T? I wonder if they have local fail-safes? I'd assume they must. But then again the only protection this location had was a chain link fence.

Part of the problem I think is the grid is a private enterprise now, ridiculous as that sounds considering our entire lifestyle depends on it - even more so than unleaded. Profit is the sole motive after the great Raygun deregulation revolution and hardening of infrastructure that doesn't add to the bottom line is overly burdensome to what is most important, profit.

[ROCKMAN]

If they want to tag maybe a "hate crime" would be more appropriate. Maybe they hated a fossil fuel burner, maybe someone just hated their boss at the plant, maybe they just hated fiber optics. Until they catch some one and beat a confession out of them we won't know.

[Subjectivist]

When I was researching using waste oil for diesel engines online I came across a thread on a different group by an electrical worker. He claimed to fuel all of his personel trucks with a mixture of used transformer cooling oil and diesel fuel as a way of cutting fuel costs for his department at the power company. Not sure how true it was, after all he was just some guy on the internet, but given that the oil they use is rather like regular motor oil in consistancy it was certainly possible.

I imagine a pool of hat kind of oil would be hard to ignite, but once it got going the fire would b hard to extinguish ithout foam, and if there was current flowing in the fire department couldn't do that until confirming he power was off. Nobody wants electrocuted fire fighters, those guys and gals have a dangerous enough job as is.

[KaiserJeep]

In actual fact the substation was offline 27 days and several transformer replacements were required. But the thousands of cut fibers was the major damage requiring prolonged repair.

The fine distinctions we seem to be drawing between eco-terrorists and other terrorists escape me. We have previously discussed eco-terrorist acts that included tree spikes, sabotage of construction equipment, arson of a ski lodge, arson of SUVs, the California fruit fly infestation, and the prolonged reign of terror by the Unabomber. This time we are talking about power grid infrastructure (the transformers) and SmartGrid controls (the fiber cabling).

[KaiserJeep]

When I was researching using waste oil for diesel engines online I came across a thread on a different group by an electrical worker. He claimed to fuel all of his personel trucks with a mixture of used transformer cooling oil and diesel fuel as a way of cutting fuel costs for his department at the power company. Not sure how true it was, after all he was just some guy on the internet, but given that the oil they use is rather like regular motor oil in consistancy it was certainly possible.

I imagine a pool of hat kind of oil would be hard to ignite, but once it got going the fire would b hard to extinguish ithout foam, and if there was current flowing in the fire department couldn't do that until confirming he power was off. Nobody wants electrocuted fire fighters, those guys and gals have a dangerous enough job as is.

It really depends on the vintage of the transformer. Older transformers were filled with partially refined mineral oils containing carcinogens such as PCBs. Newer transformers use highly refined mineral oils that are virtually carcinogen-free. Finally there are very recently designed transformers utilizing vegetable oils for cooling. Generally speaking the vegetable oils have inferior insulating qualities and a greater fire hazard. All could be used for fuels, with the greatest resulting hazards from PCB-laced oils and the most benign being the vegetable oils.