Lifer returned to normal on Saturday for millions caught in the worst blackout in North American history, but isolated outages stubbornly continued in communities from Michigan to Connecticut and Ontario.Two days after cascading outages cut power to 50 million people, a US-Canadian task force prepared to search for the cause while utilities scrambled to get power generation back to capacity before the start of the work week on Monday. UNDER SCANNER Bush to back delay of plan on power grid WASHINGTON: The Bush administration will side with a Senate Republican attempt to freeze a controversial regulatory proposal meant to strengthen the nation’s power transmission system, a senior administration official said on Saturday. The proposal by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would create regional transmission organisations to control the flow of power over state lines and oversee the upgrade of the transmission system. Its opponents say the creation of larger, more interconnected grids would create a greater risk of outages. The blackout has turned a fierce quarrel over transmission grids into the key issue in the debate, due to resume next month. —LAT-WP Grid vulnerability leaves security experts worried Washington: A growing number of security experts worry hostile states and a rebuilt Al Qaeda could wreak havoc through assaults on the grid. In a manuscript translated by CIA, two young colonels in China’s PLA wrote in 1999 the US had become so powerful that waging conventional war against it would be suicidal. Instead, they argued that in the event of a war China should take assault the American infrastructure and economy. Experts say though Al Qaeda and other groups are unlikely to marshal resources for attack, if allowed to reconstitute, they could be a threat, said Steven Flynn, a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. —LAT-WP After trading blame, US, Canada plan joint probe TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and President Bush have agreed to set up a task force to figure out what caused the massive power outage. ‘‘President Bush acknowledged they were dealing with a tough situation,’’ said Jim Munson, Chretien’s spokesman. ‘‘The Prime Minister spoke about the 50 million people without power, but was encouraged by the community spirit in both countries.’’ The two leaders also discussed the need to prevent power failures and modernise the antiquated grid that spans the eastern seaboard. The outage left some critical government agencies in the dark, and in some cases without phone service or computers, prompting questions about how prepared they are for other emergencies. ‘‘Now, there should be no time for finger-pointing. We want to work with our neighbour to make sure this doesn’t happen again,’’ Munson said on Saturday. —LAT-WP ‘‘Until the systems are fully up and operational, until the demands start to return to full peak.there remains the potential for rolling blackouts,’’ US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said after speaking to the Governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. ‘‘Our first goal is to just get the existing generation back on line. That’s going to take some time.’The three states called on Abraham for what New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey described as ‘‘a thorough, complete, agonizing’’ investigation into the cause.‘‘On Monday, millions of New Yorkers are going to set foot back into the subways of New York. We know that our system will be up and running. But we cannot say with 100 per cent accuracy that it won’t happen again until we know what happened and what steps are being taken to prevent it,’’ said New York Governor George Pataki.The National Electric Reliability Council, a Princeton-based non-profit company set up after a huge blackout struck the East Coast in 1965, suggested the outage started when three transmission lines failed near Cleveland, Ohio.In NYC, full power returned late on Friday after 29 hours. Subway trains began running on Saturday, while stores opened for what they hoped would be their first normal day since lights went out on Thursday.‘‘Finally, it’s back to normal. I never thought this would happen here,’’ said Marie Matthew, a Haitian-born Manhattan security guard who was making her way home to New Jersey for the first time after the blackouts swept through the Northeast.Public officials urged residents to conserve energy by keeping lights, air-conditioners and washing machines switched off. Airport delays continued, while thousands of stranded travellers stood in line at airports hoping to book new flights after hundreds of cancellations.In the Midwest, where energy officials believe the blackout began, residents of Cleveland and Detroit boiled their drinking water after the blackout paralysed water pumps. Sporadic outages continued in sections of Connecticut and New Jersey, while in Ontario, officials warned of possible rolling blackouts. New York officials estimated the metropolis may have lost $40 million in taxes and paid as much as $10 million in extra overtime during the blackout. The New York Times reported that losses in personal income among eight million city residents could run as high as $750 million. Pataki noted the irony that the National Electric Reliability Council was set up to promote reliable energy after 1965. ‘‘If ever there was a misnomer, it’s the ‘Electric Reliability Council.’ We did not have reliability,’’ he said. —Reuters
