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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview with Pat Wood III
Aired August 16, 2003 - 07:03 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.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about this, get into the complications, figure out why. For more on what may have caused the massive outage and what can be done to make sure that it doesn't happen again, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission joins us now on the phone. His name is Pat Wood, and he is in Port Arthur, Texas.
Pat, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
PAT WOOD III, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION (on phone): Thank you, Tom. Good morning.
ROBERTS: Let's first talk about what we just heard Kathleen say, about the Lake Erie loop. Is that what you're learning, exactly what she was saying about how this flows out, and that Cleveland may be where we can pinpoint the beginning of this disaster?
WOOD: Well, I don't want to jump to -- to a, you know, conclusion before we get all the facts in. But the Lake Erie loop is something that certainly the engineers in North America have known about for years. And the earliest reported tripping of a line did happen in the afternoon of Thursday in Cleveland area.
So we are looking at that as the earliest thing we know about. We certainly got a lot of other data, both in Canada and the U.S., that we are looking through now and trying to figure out exactly how that all, you know, comes together.
But that's, you know, certainly, what we know now is looking at that area, yes.
ROBERTS: Pat, you mention this other data from the U.S. as well as Canada. What is that data, and what's most significant that stands out to you?
WOOD: Well, the -- you know, the frequency of an electric system has to be right at 60 hertz, 60 cycles per second, all the time. And we measure that frequency just about in every, you know, every part of the whole grid. And looking at all the different data extracts from Thursday afternoon, there's really the kind of forensic analysis that the engineers and all have to look through and really understand what the -- because that's like the blood pressure of the power system.
So we have to go back and look at the real-time data that extracted from that system on Thursday afternoon, not just in Cleveland, or in Detroit, but everywhere across that northeastern grid.
So we -- that's really the kind of deconstruction that has to go on.
ROBERTS: Pat, as I understand it, there's going to be a joint investigation between U.S. officials and Canadian officials. Has that already officially started, since there is this shared information? And if not, when is it going to start?
WOOD: No, it's started, and the president announced it last night, the prime minister announced it jointly last night. But that work's beginning, going under way right there. And that's a pretty important common set of facts to make sure that, you know, quite frankly, we don't descend into some of the fingerpointing we've seen yesterday.
Let's look at the facts and figure out exactly what happened, understand it, figure out if any rules were broken, if the rules weren't strong enough in the first place, make any changes necessary, whether those be to the laws or just to the practice.
And then make sure this never happens again.
ROBERTS: And Pat, real quickly, before we let you go, how closely do you work with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in the past, how closely have you worked with him? And, I guess, is this situation going to have you working with him a lot closer in the future?
WOOD: It is actually Secretary of Energy Abraham is going to be in charge of this task force. But since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security and certainly since it's been set up earlier this year has been really in charge of a lot of the issues related to the power blackout.
But this particular one, the president put over on the Energy Department.
ROBERTS: OK, Pat Wood, joining us this morning from Port Arthur, Texas. Pat's the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Pat, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for the insight.
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 16, 2003 - 07:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We want to talk more about this, get into the complications, figure out why. For more on what may have caused the massive outage and what can be done to make sure that it doesn't happen again, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission joins us now on the phone. His name is Pat Wood, and he is in Port Arthur, Texas.
Pat, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
PAT WOOD III, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION (on phone): Thank you, Tom. Good morning.
ROBERTS: Let's first talk about what we just heard Kathleen say, about the Lake Erie loop. Is that what you're learning, exactly what she was saying about how this flows out, and that Cleveland may be where we can pinpoint the beginning of this disaster?
WOOD: Well, I don't want to jump to -- to a, you know, conclusion before we get all the facts in. But the Lake Erie loop is something that certainly the engineers in North America have known about for years. And the earliest reported tripping of a line did happen in the afternoon of Thursday in Cleveland area.
So we are looking at that as the earliest thing we know about. We certainly got a lot of other data, both in Canada and the U.S., that we are looking through now and trying to figure out exactly how that all, you know, comes together.
But that's, you know, certainly, what we know now is looking at that area, yes.
ROBERTS: Pat, you mention this other data from the U.S. as well as Canada. What is that data, and what's most significant that stands out to you?
WOOD: Well, the -- you know, the frequency of an electric system has to be right at 60 hertz, 60 cycles per second, all the time. And we measure that frequency just about in every, you know, every part of the whole grid. And looking at all the different data extracts from Thursday afternoon, there's really the kind of forensic analysis that the engineers and all have to look through and really understand what the -- because that's like the blood pressure of the power system.
So we have to go back and look at the real-time data that extracted from that system on Thursday afternoon, not just in Cleveland, or in Detroit, but everywhere across that northeastern grid.
So we -- that's really the kind of deconstruction that has to go on.
ROBERTS: Pat, as I understand it, there's going to be a joint investigation between U.S. officials and Canadian officials. Has that already officially started, since there is this shared information? And if not, when is it going to start?
WOOD: No, it's started, and the president announced it last night, the prime minister announced it jointly last night. But that work's beginning, going under way right there. And that's a pretty important common set of facts to make sure that, you know, quite frankly, we don't descend into some of the fingerpointing we've seen yesterday.
Let's look at the facts and figure out exactly what happened, understand it, figure out if any rules were broken, if the rules weren't strong enough in the first place, make any changes necessary, whether those be to the laws or just to the practice.
And then make sure this never happens again.
ROBERTS: And Pat, real quickly, before we let you go, how closely do you work with Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in the past, how closely have you worked with him? And, I guess, is this situation going to have you working with him a lot closer in the future?
WOOD: It is actually Secretary of Energy Abraham is going to be in charge of this task force. But since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security and certainly since it's been set up earlier this year has been really in charge of a lot of the issues related to the power blackout.
But this particular one, the president put over on the Energy Department.
ROBERTS: OK, Pat Wood, joining us this morning from Port Arthur, Texas. Pat's the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Pat, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for the insight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
