> Well.. it'd be a great time to skimp on maintenance and pocket that difference. Then when the inevitable happens, you can just shout "Russians!"

except, that's not how natural gas plants work. Shouting "Russians!" doesn't pay the repair bills, nor does it make up for the lost revenue in the meantime.

If you consider the impact on _one_ plant. If the loss of that plant drives prices up for all other plants, than it could easily be worth it.

But then why stage an incident? If your total profits rise when production at one plant stops, why not just shut down the plant—or reduce output across all plants? As far as I know, nobody is forcing them to over produce.

A staged accident by foreign forces is the OP's wild assertion, I've made no such point.

I'm suggesting that a more banal circumstance, lack of maintenance, and then a true accident, is much more likely. My point is that the current political environment makes deflecting blame in this situation a possibility, not that you would stage an accident to intentionally take advantage of it.

How this is a harder idea to accept then "the russians are secretly blowing this up" is amazing to me, particularly on this forum.

Do you have any *any* evidence at all? If so, please share.