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American Morning

America's Energy Woes

Aired May 15, 2001 - 10:05   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now, money is power, both literally and figuratively these days. But energy is becoming an increasingly valuable commodity. This morning, we're getting an assessment of the nation's power grid, a topic no longer taken for granted in light of the rolling blackouts that have blanketed California of late.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has more on the North American Electric Reliability Council, also called NERC, which is a not for profit watchdog group -- Kathleen, good morning.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

There is good news and, of course, plenty of bad news this morning in the annual summer energy outlook from NERC. Nationwide this summer in most areas, NERC says that there are adequate resources with no blackouts expected even in areas of concern like the Northeast, the Pacific Northwest or New York City.

Energy demand, though, is expected to be up about 3.6 percent over last summer, so heavy loads are expected on transmission grids nationwide. The bad news, as you guessed it, is for the State of California, where the Council says about 260 hours of rolling blackouts will likely occur over the summer, averaging out to about 15 hours per week. Now, that is worse even than California's own power suppliers had predicted.

Still, NERC says that the long-term energy outlook nationwide is improving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM GALLAGHER, NERC: And our latest 10 year assessment, which was published last October, indicates that there's about 200,000 megawatts of new generation proposed over the next five years. Now, if all of that generation gets built, certainly we will be in good shape going into the future. The likelihood is all of that generation will not be built because that is the amount that's been announced by financial developers. If even half to two thirds of that gets built going into the future during the next five years, we should be in good shape.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KOCH: Just for translation of, that number of megawatts translates out to about enough energy to power above what we have now an additional 200 million U.S. homes. The outlook, though optimistic for most of the country, is not entirely rosy for some of those warning areas such as the Pacific Northwest. The entire Northwest is in a drought. Snowfall is very low, so NERC says that this coming winter, 2001 and even the following winter, 2002, the Pacific Northwest could experience some serious energy problems.

Also, New York City. There, the prediction that NERC is issuing is banking on all 11 of these electricity combustion turbines now under construction being completed in time for this summer. They are not yet completed. And if they are not and the heat goes up, then NERC says that New York City may experience what they call capacity shortages -- Leon?

HARRIS: All right, thanks much, Kathleen Koch in Washington. Appreciate that.

KOCH: You bet.

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