Feds investigate cause of blackout

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Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham yesterday dispatched federal investigative teams throughout the Northeast as administration supporters and critics debated who was to blame for last week's blackout.

"Something went wrong. We'll find it out, and when we do, we'll make sure it doesn't happen again," Mr. Abraham said on CNN's "Late Edition."

In New York, meanwhile, power company officials warned residents to conserve electricity as the city prepared for a major test as workers return to offices for the first full day of work since the Thursday blackout.

Appearing on all the Sunday political talk shows, Mr. Abraham refused to speculate on the cause of the cascading outages or comment on reports the problems originated in Ohio.

"I can only say this: What we need is an independent investigation to be conducted on both sides of the border jointly by the U.S. and the Canadian energy ministries," Mr. Abraham said.

"Until then, I am not going to comment on the suggestions that are out there. We'll certainly take into account the investigation that's gone on. But I think the people want a final, decisive answer, and we'll give it to them," Mr. Abraham said.

The blame game and finger-pointing continued as Democrats criticized congressional Republicans and the White House for failing to pass an energy plan. Republicans say Democrats have opposed the energy plan since President Bush first took office.

Mr. Abraham called it "partisan squabbling" and said Democrats who blocked Republican initiatives are "trying to have it both ways."

"If you're a person who doesn't have [electricity], you don't want to hear this partisan squabbling, what you want is to have solutions," Mr. Abraham said on NBC's "Meet the Press."