NC Senate panel OKs tougher penalties for utility attacks

Senate Bill 58 is sponsored by Sen. Tom McInnis, R-Moore. He and his family were among the 45,000 households and businesses that were left without power for five days after an unknown gunman attacked two power substations late last year.

McInnis told the Senate Agriculture, Energy and Environment committee that he and his wife had been watching college basketball when it happened. They didn't think much about it at first, he said.

"Right in the middle of the best game we’d seen all year, the lights go out. We said, ‘Well, sure hate it. Somebody’s hit a power pole, more than likely,' because the power pops back on. And then, about five minutes later, it goes out for good," he recalled.

After calling around, McInnis said, it became clear it was a deliberate attack that cost the county and its businesses millions of dollars and even put lives at risk.

"We had a lady that was on an oxygen machine," McInnis said. "She had to rely on her neighbors' generosity to bring forth a little small generator to keep her alive."

McInnis said the hospital also had to run on auxiliary power.

"We had to send them somewhere else if it was an emergency surgery," McInnis said.

Under the state's current law, though, it's possible that the person or people who carried out the attack might not get jail time. Currently, it's only a class H felony to disrupt the normal operation of a utility.

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The bill would create a new crime of "injuring an energy facility." It would be a class C felony with a lengthy prison sentence, or a B2 felony with an even longer sentence - more than a decade - if it results in someone's death. It would also carry a fine of $250,000, and the person who commits it would be civilly liable for triple damages to anyone injured by it.

It would also make it a felony, rather than a misdemeanor, to trespass on the property of energy or wastewater facilities.

"We've got federal legislation and federal laws that protect the critical infrastructure, but we don't want to rely on the federal government to prosecute someone who has damaged something that is a state project," McInnis told reporters. "It's time for a wholesale look at everything, especially when it relates to the backbone of our infrastructure and the things that supply power and water and broadband."

McInnis said more bills on this issue will be probably be filed, but he wants this one to move quickly.

The bill goes next to Senate Judiciary. McInnis is confident it'll pass the Senate, and he said he's had encouraging conversations with House leaders about it as well.