Where is Spencer Abraham ? Isn't he the Secretary of Energy ?

[kentuck]

I have seen Bill Richardson, former Secretary of Energy, on TV as the authority on the subject. But has anyone seen Abraham? Where is he?
What are we paying him for?

By the way, Richardson says the transmission lines were "overloaded". I take this to mean there was too much electricity for the power lines to handle, not too little electricity. Is this correct?

But the present power monopolies do not want anyone else to build new power lines, because they take some of their profits. And they don't want to build more power lines themselves, out of their own pockets, although the cost would be minimal, relatively speaking.

But where is Spencer Abraham?

[Cocoa]

1. Bush said he talked to Tom Ridge and Andy Card

I didn't hear him say anything about Abraham. Good question...

[SoCalDem]

2. Spencer is probably waiting by his phone

for Karen Hughes to call him, so he knows what to say..

Actually he probably won't say anything now.. The story would be all aboout why he's only getting around to commenting so long after the "event"//

Homeland security...dropped the ball
Energy Dept.........dropped the ball
President...........vacation
Vice president......gone fishin'

Pretty much tells us what we already knew... we are on our own :(

[JaneQPublic]

3. I was wondering the very same thing...

...last night after about the third Bill Richardson interview.

My best guess is Abraham couldn't take any questions because he had his head up in a place as dark as NYC's subways.

[Shrek]

4. He's in Europe

So says The Guardian.

[Divernan]

5. Ah Hah! that was my first guess when I saw the title on this thread!

Bush having to admit that one of his cabinet members would rather vacation in Europe than some cultural and environmental heaven like Crawford, Texas in August? Merde! Better to have no mention of him at all. Wonder if he was in German or France?

[barbaraann]

6. Keeping himself busy handling out bags of money to the BFEE.

For example,

http://www.netl.doe.gov/coalpower/sequestration/partnerships/index.html

[SoCalDem]

8. Handing out $15 BILLION , maybe???

SoCalDem (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-14-03 03:43 PM
Response to Reply #96

99. Cheney's meeting and dereg ?? Found two more "attendees"


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=177323

SoCalDem (1000+ posts) Thu Aug-14-03 02:19 PM
Response to Original message

2. This is very interesting...Black & Veatch ....national power grid...

http://www.geni.org/energy/library/media_coverage/KansasCityStar/3accbbb0_607.html

Black & Veatch proposal envisions national power grid
By DAN MARGOLIES - The Kansas City Star
Date: 06/07/2001 22:15

With the Bush energy plan emphasizing production, Black & Veatch has unveiled a $15 billion proposal to establish a national power grid and to build power plants close to their fuel sources.

The Kansas City engineering and construction company calls its strategy TAG, short for TransAmerica Grid, and says it would increase supplies and reduce prices while bolstering the nation's grid capacity and reliability. "The energy crisis is not only about generating more power," said Dean Oskvig, president of Black & Veatch's power delivery division. "It's about getting surplus power to areas that need power."

....snip.....

The Black & Veatch proposal was developed in conjunction with Siemens AG. The two companies project capital costs of $3.8 billion for the proposed transmission system and about $11 billion for the power plants. The firms began developing the proposal in late 1998 and don't have any customers yet. The TAG system would address the problem of moving bulk power across the country. Experts say current electrical generation capability is sufficient to meet demand. But existing transmission grids, which move electricity from region to region, are considered inadequate to move electricity from areas of excess capacity to areas facing power shortages.

...snip....

To get the electricity to distant customers, TAG envisions the construction of high-voltage, direct-current transmission lines connecting the country's East and West coast grids. The new lines would add 6,000 megawatts to the current 1,000 megawatts of east-west transfer capability. The current transmission system basically consists of eastern and western interconnections that meet in Texas. The grids are separately synchronized alternating-current systems.

"The backbone of TAG is a high-voltage (direct current) system to move large blocks of power around the regions," Oskvig said. "The current grid is being used to move chunks of power in ways it wasn't designed to do. ... With TAG, if there was excess power-generating capability in the eastern U.S., and the western U.S. needed power, we could get it there."

Black & Veatch and Siemens pitched TAG in April to the energy task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney. The proposal dovetails with a recommendation in the Bush administration's energy plan, unveiled last month, to look at the possibility of establishing a national grid and to identify measures to remove transmission bottlenecks. Right now, TAG is an idea in search of a customer. And it is not clear the idea would win universal acceptance.

...snip....

Oskvig said the technology underlying TAG was not exotic.

"What we're talking about is the first leg of an interstate superhighway system for transmission," he said.


To reach Dan Margolies, call [phone] or send e-mail to [e-mail].


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Link: http://www.kcstar.com:80/item/pages/printer.pat,business/3accbbb0.607,.html
All content © 2001 The Kansas City Star

[hatrack]

7. He's busy promoting the new hydrogen-powered FreedomSocket

It's an amazing new fuel-cell technology that will plug right in to your existing wall sockets and generate no wastes other than Dom Perignon, which will be collected in a crystal goblet mounted just below the generating unit.

Department of Energy researchers say they expect the FreedomSocket to be available in limited consumer test markets sometime between 2035 and 2040.

[AlinPA]

9. WH is "rebuilding" Iraq's power grid

Lets ask Karl rove "why not ours?" Dirty bastards.

[radwriter0555]

10. The author of the deregulation legislation that sank CA into it's current

budget woes?

THAT spence abrahams?

One of the 7 FELONS working in the white house?

THAT spencer?

[Brian Sweat]

11. He had to make sure that Hans Solo's cryofreeze unit didn't thaw out.

[bigwoody]

12. Still trying to eliminate the Dept . of Energy? He signed on to that

Gingrich horseshit in '94, Dept. of Ed. also. My guess is he's out buying the 2 tacos for 98 cents at Taco Bell by the hundred in case the power goes out in D.C.