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Discussion With Deputy Secretary of Energy

Aired August 15, 2003 - 14:03   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What do the administration's energy officials have to say about this? Kyle McSlarrow is the deputy secretary of energy, he joins us now from Washington with the latest on the search for what done it and what to do about it.
Nice to have you, sir.

KYLE MCSLARROW, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: You got quite involved yesterday, is that correct, in New York?

MCSLARROW: I think we all did.

PHILLIPS: No doubt all across the country. Tell us exactly what you did.

MCSLARROW: Well, the first thing, as the president said last night on TV was to focus on helping people, so the department of Homeland Security and all of the agencies with relevant authorities and abilities to assist made clear to all the infected states - that we would provide whatever assistance was needed. So that engaged (ph) effort, totally outside the energy context but obviously including it as well.

One example would be Governor Pataki last night called and ask the secretary of energy to energize a line that had been off line between Connecticut and Long Island. Secretary of energy did issue an order authorizing the energizing of that line. I just spoke to the governor a few minutes ago, I understand about 100 megawatts of power is now flowing through that line, and there are any number of other requests for assistance, not just for the Department of Energy but across the board. And the president's made clear we're to do anything we can to help.

PHILLIPS: While doing everything you can to help. What a reality to check, what happened yesterday. What is being done to fix America's weaknesses within this power grid right now? It's a bit frightening, although everything pretty much turned out okay, it did reveal that there are some serious loopholes and gaps when it comes to our security.

MCSLARROW: It's absurd that it took this kind of blackout to get us focused on the need to really reform our electricity sector and promote investment in our transmission grid.

The president said for two-and-a-half years, and this bipartisan, there are leaders like the Jeff Bingaman, senator from New Mexico who's been leading the charge as well, but the president and Secretary Abraham (ph) have made clear for two-and-a-half years that the grid is antiquated and needed to be upgraded and working with Ferk (ph), we had a number of proposals to promote investment to build on the R&D that we do at our department, and we need Congress to act on the energy bill.

And we've done that for two-and-a-half years. The good news is the House and the Senate have now passed energy bills that include many of the president's proposals to promote reliability of the grid and now we have to get it done over the next few months when Congress returns.

PHILLIPS: Sort of a sad reflection on how it takes something like this to finally push things forward. It's always after the fact, it seems, in situations like this. You say for a number of years there have been a lot of plans on the table. What is the solution? What is it that you've been working on? What is it you have been proposing that officials do to fix this antiquated system?

MCSLARROW: The most important thing to understand about the grid is that it has become certainly regional, in some ways, national. I mean, when we were growing up, and certainly in the middle of the last century, electricity grids were just little pockets around monopolies, essentially utilities. That's no longer the case. And so the rules and the regulations have to catch up to the reality. The good news is we now have competitive markets and our analysis shows that we saved consumers about $13 billion a year in terms of spending, but we need to go farther.

And as we moved toward competitive wholesale markets, the investment and transmission grid wasn't keeping up. Now the government is doing its part in terms of promoting investment and R&D. For example, we increase super-conducting research and development into high-temperature super-conducting cables which allow you to transfer electricity without all of the massive loss of electricity that you get in today's environment. We increased that by 50 percent in the president's budget this year.

There's a lot more that can be done, but the private sector principally has to be able to step up to the plate, know they're going to get a return on their investment, and if we can do that, and think about this, nationally but certainly regionally, then I think we can get the kind of investment we need to build out the lines.

PHILLIPS: Kyle McSlarrow, deputy secretary of energy, we sure appreciate your time today.

MCSLARROW: Sure. Thanks for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 15, 2003 - 14:03   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: What do the administration's energy officials have to say about this? Kyle McSlarrow is the deputy secretary of energy, he joins us now from Washington with the latest on the search for what done it and what to do about it.
Nice to have you, sir.

KYLE MCSLARROW, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF ENERGY: Thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: You got quite involved yesterday, is that correct, in New York?

MCSLARROW: I think we all did.

PHILLIPS: No doubt all across the country. Tell us exactly what you did.

MCSLARROW: Well, the first thing, as the president said last night on TV was to focus on helping people, so the department of Homeland Security and all of the agencies with relevant authorities and abilities to assist made clear to all the infected states - that we would provide whatever assistance was needed. So that engaged (ph) effort, totally outside the energy context but obviously including it as well.

One example would be Governor Pataki last night called and ask the secretary of energy to energize a line that had been off line between Connecticut and Long Island. Secretary of energy did issue an order authorizing the energizing of that line. I just spoke to the governor a few minutes ago, I understand about 100 megawatts of power is now flowing through that line, and there are any number of other requests for assistance, not just for the Department of Energy but across the board. And the president's made clear we're to do anything we can to help.

PHILLIPS: While doing everything you can to help. What a reality to check, what happened yesterday. What is being done to fix America's weaknesses within this power grid right now? It's a bit frightening, although everything pretty much turned out okay, it did reveal that there are some serious loopholes and gaps when it comes to our security.

MCSLARROW: It's absurd that it took this kind of blackout to get us focused on the need to really reform our electricity sector and promote investment in our transmission grid.

The president said for two-and-a-half years, and this bipartisan, there are leaders like the Jeff Bingaman, senator from New Mexico who's been leading the charge as well, but the president and Secretary Abraham (ph) have made clear for two-and-a-half years that the grid is antiquated and needed to be upgraded and working with Ferk (ph), we had a number of proposals to promote investment to build on the R&D that we do at our department, and we need Congress to act on the energy bill.

And we've done that for two-and-a-half years. The good news is the House and the Senate have now passed energy bills that include many of the president's proposals to promote reliability of the grid and now we have to get it done over the next few months when Congress returns.

PHILLIPS: Sort of a sad reflection on how it takes something like this to finally push things forward. It's always after the fact, it seems, in situations like this. You say for a number of years there have been a lot of plans on the table. What is the solution? What is it that you've been working on? What is it you have been proposing that officials do to fix this antiquated system?

MCSLARROW: The most important thing to understand about the grid is that it has become certainly regional, in some ways, national. I mean, when we were growing up, and certainly in the middle of the last century, electricity grids were just little pockets around monopolies, essentially utilities. That's no longer the case. And so the rules and the regulations have to catch up to the reality. The good news is we now have competitive markets and our analysis shows that we saved consumers about $13 billion a year in terms of spending, but we need to go farther.

And as we moved toward competitive wholesale markets, the investment and transmission grid wasn't keeping up. Now the government is doing its part in terms of promoting investment and R&D. For example, we increase super-conducting research and development into high-temperature super-conducting cables which allow you to transfer electricity without all of the massive loss of electricity that you get in today's environment. We increased that by 50 percent in the president's budget this year.

There's a lot more that can be done, but the private sector principally has to be able to step up to the plate, know they're going to get a return on their investment, and if we can do that, and think about this, nationally but certainly regionally, then I think we can get the kind of investment we need to build out the lines.

PHILLIPS: Kyle McSlarrow, deputy secretary of energy, we sure appreciate your time today.

MCSLARROW: Sure. Thanks for having me.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com