Bush Says Electrical Grid Is Outdated

[stevedeshazer]

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. Aug. 15 —

President Bush said Friday the power outages across the Northeast and Midwest are "a wake-up
call" to the antiquated state of the nation's electrical grid and urged those whose power has
returned not to overload the still-limping system.

During a tour of a national park north of Los Angeles, thousands of miles away from the problem,
Bush said it remained unclear what caused the massive blackout.





"It's going to take a while, I think" Bush told reporters. "But we will find out what caused the
blackout, and we'll deal with it."

The president said the blackout will require changes in the country's electrical infrastructure.

"I view it as a wake-up call," Bush said. "I think this is an indication of the fact that we need to
modernize the electricity grid ... make the electricity system have the redundancy necessary so
that if there is an outage, like there has been throughout our history, that it doesn't affect as many
people as it did in the past."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030815_1300.html

[CO Liberal]

1. Bush's Plan - All Power Gets Routed Through Halliburton

Just watch.......

[stevedeshazer]

2. That was my very first thought

Which campaign contributors get the government contracts to rebuild the electrical grid?

[Karenina]

5. The same *privatized ones

feeding American troops NASSY-DOO MREs, providing water (2-1.5l pro tag. Yeah, *right.) Who is taking responsibility for mail services? Gub'mit won't provide it, family can't get it sent through intact...

Go *right on ahead. Let 'em "privatize" the grid. :eyes:

[Randi_Listener]

3. Either way, this is the GOP's fault or *'s fault.

Rat bastards.

[oustemnow]

7. geez, nice spare tire there, Dub

thought he was, in the words of his physician, a "superior specimen."

I agree with others on this thread suggesting that there will be a push for deregulation following this blackout brouhaha, and Ken Lay will probably be put in charge of the project. These guys are just that arrogant, and their opinion of the public's intelligence just that low.

[Lisa]

9. no, no -- that's where he keeps the 5 lbs. of solid "muscle"

... which he gained in the past year.

As another DUer pointed out -- the assertion that Bush's body fat % is exactly what it was before, is simply not compatible with the assertion that he only put on "muscle" and not fat! Scotty, Ari's replacement, protests too much!

Ken Lay for electricity czar?! That just might happen ...

[CO Liberal]

10. No - That 5 Lbs of Muscle is Between His Ears

:-)

[Lefty48197]

4. I'll bet his solution will be

drilling in the ANWR, more nuke plants, dirtier coal...

[SeattleDem]

6. too bad the deregulation they support

makes it more financially attractive to game the system than to build new infrastructure.

If power plants were still public facilities, maybe the infrastructure wouldn't suffer.

but when power generation and transmission are in the hands of a few evil corporations, like Enron, you cannot count on them to build for the future when there is a ton of money to be made now by gaming the system.

How would sharedholders respond to reduced dividends/profits so that the money could go into creating excess capacity? Hmmm, not very well.... Would Enron have been Wall Street's darling if it hadn't had that incredible upswing in stock price? Would the stock increase have occurred if they were building infrastructure?

[DulceDecorum]

8. Recall Pataki

Bloomberg too.

[Paragon]

11. Wow, Sherlock - what was your first clue?

Once again - Chimp states the obvious, the spoonfed media thinks it sounds presidential and gives him another headline.

[geomon666]

12. Wow!

"It's going to take a while, I think" Bush told reporters.

That's a first.