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House Questions Energy Execs on Blackout
Aired September 04, 2003 - 13:29 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: Shedding light on the blackout of 2003. The hearing on Capitol Hill probing the massive outage is in its second day now. Today, the company at the center of the probe faced some tough questions. The top executive of FirstEnergy found himself on the defensive. CNN's Fred Katayama following the hearing. He joins us live now with an update. Hi, Fred.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well utility executives and grid operators on the hot seat today on the second day of the hearings, investigating the biggest blackout of the nation's history.
Perhaps no seat was hotter than the one occupied by the head of the Ohio utility that's at the focus of the probe. FirstEnergy Chairman Peter Berg went on the defensive, deflecting criticism by saying, Don't single out any one event for causing the black out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER BERG, FIRSTENERGY: FirstEnergy believes that the August 14 outage can only be the result of a combination of events that occurred across the Eastern Interconnection. We do not believe events on any one system could account for the widespread nature of the outage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: He acknowledged that the company's computer system experienced failures. He did not refer to the chaos and anxiety at FirstEnergy's control room that was depicted in the transcript of a phone conversation between company technicians and the group that monitors the power grid in the Midwest. The House Energy Committee holding the hearings released those transcripts to the media last flight.
The utility executives pointed the finger at each other. Berg was asked during the Q & A session whether he had the responsibility to alert neighboring utilities about its situation prior to the start of the blackout. He replied that his company didn't think it was facing a critical situation at that point.
The CEO of an energy firm in neighboring Michigan, Joseph Welch of International Transmission Company said FirstEnergy had not warned his company before the blackout began, nor did he receive information from anyone else, for that matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSEPH WELCH, CEO, INTL. TRANSMISSION CO.: Basically, I became aware of the system be aberration when the lights in my office went down -- went out. I immediately -- I was on the telephone call. I got up from my chair, went downstairs, which is where the control center's physically located in our office building, and I asked what had happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: Welch said what he termed the "communications mishmash" between energy firms must be improved. He had earlier told investigators in a statement that Michigan would have had options that could have forestalled the blackout, had it been warned of the problems in Ohio -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred Katayama, thank you.
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 4, 2003 - 13:29 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Shedding light on the blackout of 2003. The hearing on Capitol Hill probing the massive outage is in its second day now. Today, the company at the center of the probe faced some tough questions. The top executive of FirstEnergy found himself on the defensive. CNN's Fred Katayama following the hearing. He joins us live now with an update. Hi, Fred.
FRED KATAYAMA, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well utility executives and grid operators on the hot seat today on the second day of the hearings, investigating the biggest blackout of the nation's history.
Perhaps no seat was hotter than the one occupied by the head of the Ohio utility that's at the focus of the probe. FirstEnergy Chairman Peter Berg went on the defensive, deflecting criticism by saying, Don't single out any one event for causing the black out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER BERG, FIRSTENERGY: FirstEnergy believes that the August 14 outage can only be the result of a combination of events that occurred across the Eastern Interconnection. We do not believe events on any one system could account for the widespread nature of the outage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: He acknowledged that the company's computer system experienced failures. He did not refer to the chaos and anxiety at FirstEnergy's control room that was depicted in the transcript of a phone conversation between company technicians and the group that monitors the power grid in the Midwest. The House Energy Committee holding the hearings released those transcripts to the media last flight.
The utility executives pointed the finger at each other. Berg was asked during the Q & A session whether he had the responsibility to alert neighboring utilities about its situation prior to the start of the blackout. He replied that his company didn't think it was facing a critical situation at that point.
The CEO of an energy firm in neighboring Michigan, Joseph Welch of International Transmission Company said FirstEnergy had not warned his company before the blackout began, nor did he receive information from anyone else, for that matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSEPH WELCH, CEO, INTL. TRANSMISSION CO.: Basically, I became aware of the system be aberration when the lights in my office went down -- went out. I immediately -- I was on the telephone call. I got up from my chair, went downstairs, which is where the control center's physically located in our office building, and I asked what had happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KATAYAMA: Welch said what he termed the "communications mishmash" between energy firms must be improved. He had earlier told investigators in a statement that Michigan would have had options that could have forestalled the blackout, had it been warned of the problems in Ohio -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred Katayama, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
