US white supremacist sentenced to 18 years for plotting to blow up power plants

A US right-wing extremist was sentenced Wednesday to 18 years in prison for plans to attack public electricity facilities in the city of Baltimore as part of a white supremacist plot, the Department of Justice said.

Sarah Beth Clendaniel pleaded guilty in May to planning to attack electrical infrastructure and illegal possession of a weapon.

Guided by the co-founder of the notorious Atomwaffen neo-Nazi group, Brandon Russell, Clendaniel had targeted five electrical substations around Baltimore, in the US state of Maryland.

Both she and Russell, who is awaiting trial, are adherents of the "accelerationism" movement, a white supremacy ideology that encourages violent action in order to precipitate societal and governmental collapse.

Clendaniel was sentenced to 18 years for planning the attack and 15 years for illegal possession of a weapon as a felon, sentences that she will serve concurrently, the Department of Justice said.

Clendaniel has previously spent time in prison for armed robbery.

"Sarah Beth Clendaniel sought to 'completely destroy' the city of Baltimore by targeting five power substations as a means of furthering her violent white supremacist ideology," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

There has been an uptick in attacks on US power substations in recent years, with many believed to be by white supremacists aiming to foment unrest.

Clendaniel had said the attacks "would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste," according to her indictment filed in federal court.

The monetary loss associated with the planned attacks would have exceeded $75 million, according to the Department of Justice.

"The defendant plotted to disable the power grid around the entire Baltimore region and cause harm to thousands of people in pursuit of a racially motivated violent extremist agenda," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.