BTL:Consumer Groups Link Power Outage and Failing Grid to Utility Deregulation

Consumer Groups Link Power Outage and Failing Grid to Utility Deregulation

Interview with Wenonah Hauter, of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, conducted by Scott Harris

On the afternoon of Aug. 14, the lights went out across eight states in the Northeast, Midwest and eastern Canada. The massive power outage, which disrupted the lives of an estimated 50 million people, was triggered by faults on the grid believed to have started at an electric plant in Ohio.

Since power was restored, representatives of utility companies and government officials have placed the blame on what they describe as an antiquated electric transmission grid system in desperate need of modernization. The Electric Power Research Institute, a group funded by the utility industry, has estimated that it will cost taxpayers $100 billion to upgrade the grid.

But consumer groups point to deregulation as one of the primary sources of problems on the grid. They claim that a privatized profit-driven system promotes high-volume energy trading that overloads transmission lines, provides disincentives to make necessary repairs and hire adequate numbers of personnel to perform preventive maintenance.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Wenonah Hauter , director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, who examines dereguation's role in the degradation of the grid and pending energy legislation that she says will likely exacerbate the problem.

Contact Public Citizen by calling (202) 546-4996 or visit their web site at http://www.citizen.org. Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, http://www.energyactivist.org Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program's Faxing System, http://www.stopenergybill.org

Related links

Northeast Energy Deregulation

"Report: Power Grid Upgrade May Cost $100 Billion"by Chris Baltimore, Reuters, Aug. 25, 2003

"Utility Officers Gave to Bush," by Mike Allen, The Washington Post, Aug. 19, 2003

California's Energy Deregulation

Defiant Davis Blasts GOP 'National Power Grab: "Excerpts From Speech by Governor of California About the Recall Election," The New York Times, Aug. 20, 2003

"The Latest Bogus Fossil-Nuke Blackout: This Grid Should Not Exist," by Harvey Wasserman, http://www.freepress.org, Aug. 15, 2003

"Utility Greed, Not Power Shortage, Root Cause of California's Deregulation Disaster," Between The Lines interview with Harvey Wasserman, energy activist, Feb. 9, 2001.

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