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What Caused Blackout of 2003?
Aired September 03, 2003 - 13:23 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So was it an Ohio utility's fault or old outdated transmission lines? Or was last month's massive power failure just an inevitable outcome of deregulation? Or maybe a combination of all three of those?
A congressional panel wants answers. CNN's Fred Katayama wants them, too. He's covering those hearings. He joins us now live from Capitol Hill.
Hello, Fred.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good afternoon, Miles.
Well, the hearing and the energy problem has been going on for more than three hours now. And Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is on the hot seat. He's been in that hot seat for more than an hour now. This is day one of two days of hearings here in the House.
Secretary Abraham refused to speculate on what caused the biggest blackout in the nation's history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPENCER ABRAHAM, ENERGY SECRETARY: Determining the exact causes of this blackout is far too complex a task for anyone to know all the answers at this stage. We are gathering information on about 10,000 individual events that happened across thousands of square miles in the space of about nine seconds.
All that information has to be collected, compiled, sequenced and analyzed before any credible conclusions can be drawn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: Democratic lawmakers accused the Republicans and the administration of using the blackout to push forth a broad energy bill, one that includes a controversial provision that would allow for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Reserve.
Democratic Congressman Ed Markey says that drilling for oil has nothing to do with preventing another blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Oil is for cars and trucks, not for air conditioners, refrigerators, ovens, all light bulbs. Only about three percent of the oil our nation consumes is used for electricity. What stopped working during the blackout? Our lights, our cooling, our refrigerators, our ovens. Our cars and our SUVs ran just fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: And so, the Democrats are backing Congressman John Dingell's call for separate legislation focusing solely on electricity, one that calls for mandating reliability rules.
The Republicans say a more comprehensive bill is necessary to prevent other energy problems from occurring, such as the current one, which consumers face high gas prices and high natural gas prices.
Regardless of all this, Representative Billy Tauzin, who chairs the House Energy Committee, says he hopes to have an energy bill on the president's desk by the end of this month -- Miles?
O'BRIEN: Fred Katayama on Capitol. Thank you very much. Shedding light.
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 September 3, 2003 - 13:23 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So was it an Ohio utility's fault or old outdated transmission lines? Or was last month's massive power failure just an inevitable outcome of deregulation? Or maybe a combination of all three of those?
A congressional panel wants answers. CNN's Fred Katayama wants them, too. He's covering those hearings. He joins us now live from Capitol Hill.
Hello, Fred.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, good afternoon, Miles.
Well, the hearing and the energy problem has been going on for more than three hours now. And Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is on the hot seat. He's been in that hot seat for more than an hour now. This is day one of two days of hearings here in the House.
Secretary Abraham refused to speculate on what caused the biggest blackout in the nation's history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPENCER ABRAHAM, ENERGY SECRETARY: Determining the exact causes of this blackout is far too complex a task for anyone to know all the answers at this stage. We are gathering information on about 10,000 individual events that happened across thousands of square miles in the space of about nine seconds.
All that information has to be collected, compiled, sequenced and analyzed before any credible conclusions can be drawn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: Democratic lawmakers accused the Republicans and the administration of using the blackout to push forth a broad energy bill, one that includes a controversial provision that would allow for oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Reserve.
Democratic Congressman Ed Markey says that drilling for oil has nothing to do with preventing another blackout.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ED MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Oil is for cars and trucks, not for air conditioners, refrigerators, ovens, all light bulbs. Only about three percent of the oil our nation consumes is used for electricity. What stopped working during the blackout? Our lights, our cooling, our refrigerators, our ovens. Our cars and our SUVs ran just fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: And so, the Democrats are backing Congressman John Dingell's call for separate legislation focusing solely on electricity, one that calls for mandating reliability rules.
The Republicans say a more comprehensive bill is necessary to prevent other energy problems from occurring, such as the current one, which consumers face high gas prices and high natural gas prices.
Regardless of all this, Representative Billy Tauzin, who chairs the House Energy Committee, says he hopes to have an energy bill on the president's desk by the end of this month -- Miles?
O'BRIEN: Fred Katayama on Capitol. Thank you very much. Shedding light.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
