Thursday, August 14, 2008

U.S. on verge of grand-scale blackout
“I’m really not a ‘Chicken Little’ player, but I worry that no one seems to be focusing in on this,” said Michael Morris, chairman, president and chief executive of American Electric Power, which runs the nation’s largest electricity transmission system.

Morris said massive outages this year in South Africa, which forced gold, diamond and platinum mines to stop production for five days, should serve as a warning to the United States.

Industry experts back Morris and say there is even more resistance to building new plants because of the debate over climate change and opposition to new transmission lines. The blocking of two coal-fired plants in Kansas is one example of the resistance.

The level of excess capacity has shrunk … to a level barely within the planning toleration of the industry,” said Marc Chupka, with the Brattle Group, an energy consultant.

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