Powerless in North America
Last week Americans and Canadians had a taste of Third World scarcity, reports Anayat Durrani
Power has finally been restored to millions following the biggest electrical outage in the United States' history. Nearly 50 million people in eight states as well as parts of Canada were powerless for 29 hours while investigators scrambled to uncover the cause.
The lights went out in major cities like New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Toronto and Ottawa on Thursday, causing urban and suburban havoc. The blackout closed nuclear power plants and shut down subways and elevators, trapping people inside. Traffic lights became immediately obsolete, creating traffic jams and a nightmare for commuters. Air traffic came to an almost complete halt as flights to the many cities affected by the blackout were cancelled, leaving passengers stranded. Cell phones became useless, as the blackout shut down mobile providers. Stores and restaurants were forced to close their doors and office buildings emptied out as the power outage paralysed the region. Three deaths were caused by the outages -- two in Ottawa and one in New York.
Costs of the power outage for New York City alone have been preliminarily estimated at over a half- billion dollars in lost revenue according to the City Council. There are estimated losses of up to $750 million in lost income, $40 million in lost tax revenue, and $6.5 million in overtime pay. Though power is now operative, public officials continue to remain cautious and urge residents to conserve energy.
President Bush said Friday that the blackout served as a "wake-up call" to modernise and upgrade the electricity system. On a visit to the Santa Monica Mountains north of Los Angeles, Bush told reporters that the delivery system was "old and antiquated".
"This is an indication that we need to modernise the electricity grid," said Bush, who stressed the need for lawmakers to pass a broad energy bill.
Bush praised Americans who endured the blackout, saying they demonstrated calm during the crisis. "They showed the rest of the country and the world the true mettle of the American people," Bush said. Bush also praised the government's emergency response to the crisis, saying he was "most pleased".
"I doubt... the response would have been as good prior to 11 September," he said, referring to the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Immediately following the blackout the US and Canada formed a joint task force to investigate the cause of the power failure. The power outage was initially thought to be the work of terrorists but this was dismissed within the first hour of the blackout by the Department of Homeland Security. Bush assured the nation on Thursday night that it was indeed not the act of terrorists. The North American Electric Reliability Council, which was established after the severe 1965 blackout, traced the blackout to a malfunction of three transmission lines in northern Ohio and said that a number of "trips" on the transmission lines set off a chain reaction. First Energy Corporation, based in Akron, Ohio, which owned at least two of the three lines, said Saturday that a broken alarm system failed to signal a problem.
Making his rounds on several media programmes, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that Congress should support energy legislation backed by the White House that calls for greater investment in the power transmission system. "The grid is old. It's aging. And the growth in electricity demand is tremendous, and we're not keeping up with it," he said. "And that's why we've been pushing for energy legislation. The bills that both the House and Senate have passed would address these issues."
Former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson referred to the US as "a superpower with a Third World electricity grid" and called for passage of the Bush administration's energy bill. Stressing the urgency of the situation, Abraham warned that if an upgraded transmission system were not put into place, more problems could be expected. He acknowledged that construction of new lines would be expensive, possibly costing $56 billion.
Abraham said that the Department of Energy has put together teams of investigators to the Northeast and Upper Midwest to begin on-site investigations into the cause of the blackout. Abraham will meet with Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal on Wednesday in Detroit, to finalise a work plan and begin moving forward with the Joint Task Force. The Joint Task Force was organised to identify the causes of the recent power outage and work towards preventing future outages.
This week's blackout was not the first to have such a broad effect. Eastern cities saw similar blackouts in 1965 and in 1977. The Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 was caused by a relay failure, putting 30 million people in the dark in northeastern United States and parts of Canada. The New York Blackout of 1977 was caused by multiple lightning strikes that knocked out power to the entire city of New York and was followed by looting, arson and violence.
