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Rolling Blackout Hits Southern California

By Eric McErlain
From the AP wire:

Sweltering heat and the loss of power from a key transmission line Thursday forced the utility serving Southern California to impose rolling blackouts, leaving as many as half a million people without power for about half an hour, officials said.

The California Independent System Operator, which operates the state's electric grid, declared a transmission emergency at 3:57 p.m., said ISO spokeswoman Stephanie McCorkle.

About 30 minutes later, power was being restored to people subjected to the blackouts, she said.

It marked one of the most serious disruptions since the California power crisis in 2000 and 2001, when high demand, high wholesale energy costs, transmission glitches and a tight supply caused widespread problems including blackouts.

Here's more from the LA Times. The situation California finds itself in didn't happen overnight, and it won't be solved overnight either. Here at NEI, we think nuclear energy can be part of the solution, which is one of the topics that our President and CEO, Skip Bowman, will be addressing when he speaks at Town Hall Los Angeles on September 13. Click here for the details and here to register.

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Comments

Anonymous said…
I wouldn't expect anything to change here in California. As I've said before, few seats in the state legislature, which opposes the contruction of new nuclear power plants until the nuclear waste 'problem' can be solved, are going to change hands, as the districts are organized in a way that favors the incumbents.
August 26, 2005 at 11:38 AM
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