[Environment Report]:Blackout in U.S., Canada


This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Environment Report.

Last week millions of people in the United States and Canadasuddenly found themselves in a whole new environment. Electricitystopped flowing along thousands of kilometers of power lines.

The blackout happened August fourteenth. It lasted for hours, andstretched across a huge area of the northeastern and midwesternUnited States. Among the cities darkened were New York; Detroit,Michigan; and Cleveland, Ohio. Toronto and Ottawa were the majorCanadian cities affected. By Saturday, August sixteenth, power hadreturned almost everywhere. Economists say they expect no seriousharm to the economy.

Graphic Image
Graphic Image

Officials said it appeared to haveall started with a series of power line failures near Cleveland inthe two hours before the blackout. Experts say at least one warningsystem also failed. It was not clear how much that warning wouldhave helped. But, some say power line operators might have been ableto act to contain the outage.

Officials said the failures created a series of sudden increasesand decreases of power along lines throughout the rest of thesystem. Lines in other areas began to fail. Then, computers began toshut down whole power stations to protect them.

This week the Bush administration announced it would investigatethe blackout jointly with Canada. American Energy Secretary SpencerAbraham said it was important to examine all the facts beforeplacing blame. He said the investigation will involve hundreds ofofficials, power system operators and power companies.

Some people say the Energy Department should not lead theinvestigation because its own policies may influence the findings.But a spokeswoman says the investigation will be independent andcomplete.

The North American Electric Reliability Council also began itsown investigation. That group was set up after a nineteen-sixty-fiveoutage on the East Coast to make sure supplies are dependable.

This was the largest blackout in American history. The last majorone was in the West seven years ago. Officials have warned that thepower system is getting old. Modern living demands more and moreelectricity. Experts say thousands of kilometers of new lines areneeded.

All this will cost lots of money. But that is not the only issue.Some communities have fought efforts to build new high-voltage linesacross their land.

This VOA Special English Environment Report was written by CatyWaver.

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