New York senators renew calls for power grid overhauls
The Times Herald-Record, Middletown, N.Y. --Aug. 11
Aug. 11--Both New York senators called yesterday for big changes to the way the nation's power grid is operated.
Clinton proposed mandatory reliability standards for electric utilities, and
penalties for noncompliance. Currently a voluntary system is in place, but
investigators have said it failed to prevent the outage in Ohio, which triggered
last year's blackout.
A joint investigation by U. S. and Canadian authorities found that Ohio
utility FirstEnergy Corp. didn't meet a number of standards. But without
enforcement laws, Clinton said, there was no way to make the company change its
ways.
"They face absolutely no penalty for noncompliance," she said.
Clinton said her bill would change that, but is languishing in Congress
because of Republican opposition. Similar legislation is also tied up in a major
energy bill.
Schumer said he also supports tougher national standards, but went one step
further.
There's no agency currently suited to enforce the standards, he said, so he
proposed a new federal office to oversee the transmission grid.
"Last year's blackout made it very clear: We need an office with the
authority and the know-how to improve the reliability of the grid," he said
in a statement.
This proposed agency would regulate the transmission network, which is
currently overseen by a patchwork of regional operators, and aid training,
maintenance and communication across the nation's power network.
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