Feds investigate cause of blackout

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.”

Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, a Democrat, said the Bush administration’s investigation will get to the heart of “the things that real citizens are caring about.”

“My Aunt Linda in Warren, when she rose to turn on the tap water, she wants the water to appear, she doesn’t care who’s responsible. She doesn’t care who owns the grid and who doesn’t. She wants to know, is it going to work and am I going to have electricity? If I go to the hospital, am I going to be able to have my surgery completed? If I get into an elevator, am I going to be able to go to the top floor?” Mrs. Granholm said.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Texas Republican, blamed Senate Democrats and what he dubbed “BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) environmentalists” for blocking legislative solutions.

“This president, along with the Republicans in the House, have been trying to wake people up for many years,” Mr. DeLay said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“I’ve had an electricity bill introduced almost every year that I’ve been in Congress; We’ve been trying to tell the American people that this was going to happen,” Mr. DeLay said.

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