Ooooh , this is getting to be fun, Why should the EU be the first one to air it's dirty laundry in pubilc, eh? Why not let all the Facts be Found during litigation in the next decade?

Senate Y2K chair calls for utility disclosure By Patrick Thibodeau

U.S. Senate Y2K Committee Chairman Robert Bennett (R-Utah) has criticized electric utilities for failing to disclose Y2K readiness information and wants laggards publicly exposed. Bennett, appearing Thursday before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said 75% of the 3,200 electric utilities don't routinely share information about their Y2K readiness.

Despite that concern, Bennett said a prolonged nationwide blackout will almost certainly not occur because of the Y2K efforts by the nation's 250 bulk power producers to ensure that the national power grid will work. But local and regional outages are possible if smaller utilities aren't prepared, he said.

Bennett has asked the U.S. Department of Energy and North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) to release the names of utilities that haven't shared Y2K information.

But an NERC official said the council has no plans to release that information. "Is something like this being asked of all the other infrastructures?" said NERC spokesman Eugene F. Gorzelnik.

In any event, less than one half of 1% of all electric utilities are not Y2K-ready, said Gorzelnik, based on information NERC has received from various utility trade groups. "I don't think anyone can find fault with all the work the utility industry has done," he said.

Most utilities are reluctant to publicly list Y2K status. "A lot of lawyers are concerned about liability," said Gorzelnik.

Anyone with a concern about the Y2K status of a local utility should call the utility, NERC advises.

http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/9909245utils

-- Anonymous, September 24, 1999

Answers

This thread and the De Jager thread below are a hoot. Something about the serendipity between two threads makes me pause to think.

It sounds like all of the PR stops are being pulled out. There's a tremendous amount of concern about the November NBC TV movie, which has a major focus on the power industry (I, uh, know someone who's seen the script...). I think that we're going to start seeing, very soon, recognition on the part of all business, governement, and industry sectors that *real people* are finally going to start to get itchy about Y2k.

If your personal preps aren't well on the way toward completion, whatever your level of comfort, you're going to find yourself caught up in the herd movement pretty quickly. Believe it or not, Hurricane Floyd really *was* a Y2k a wakeup call for many, many people on the East Coast. I have never felt the Y2k "pulse of the public" quickening like it is right now...

I'm feeling seriously concerned this evening, for some reason. Maybe it's the full moon. ;-)

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

Hi Rick,

What is going on with Peter de Jager.

After "alerting" the world to the potential challenges of y2K, he believes EVERYTHING will be OK. It is as if he doesn't want to have any "blood" (not that he should) on his hands and is now content to be a "spinner". What's your impression?

Dorian

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

Nope, dont think its the full moon. It's more like the calm before the hurricane. Before radar, most people had no idea that a hurricane was coming until it was right up on them.

Speaking of the NBC Y2K movie, maybe I just don't recall, but when has there ever been a U.S. Senator make comments like that and then ask to remain anonymous. Seems very strange.

I was thinking tonight..... Lane (Core) has been a hoot to follow. Hope he keeps up his uncanny commentary to help us keep a sense of humor. What do you say Lane?

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

The bizare thing to me about the quoting of risks here is how apparently dis-jointed all of the statements are. "The eu's are not releasing enough information." Then, "There are only a small percentage of eu's belonging to the NERC." Then, "In spite of the above, we can confidently assert that only a tiny percentage of eu's will have local problems." If I were an actuary for a major bank and made decisions based on that type of logic, I'd be out of a job in no time, or the bank would be in the ground in a real hurry. This kind of logic has me wondering if "me or thee is crazy." Then we doomer types get harangued by bank people, government Y2k leaders, and our family and friends, for being so pessimistic.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

I've recently been reading Upton Sinclair's book the "Jungle" as part of a book discussion group. This was the book which exposed the horrific state of the Chicago meat packing industry at the beginning of this century and was directly responsible for various legislative acts protecting consumers and workers. Ann's comment about pessimism brought to mind a portion of the 1946 Introduction to this 1905 book:

"...Doubleday, Page and Co. offered to publish the book, provided they could be satisfied as to its truth. They consulted a 'friend' in Chicago, James Keeley, editor of the Tribune, who sent them what he said was 'an impartial report' by his 'best reporter', declaring that about everything in the book was false; it later turned out that the report had been composed by the publicity man of the Armours." Later the publishers sent one of their own lawyers to personally investigate the situation and he justified what Sinclair had written.

Later in the Introduction, Mr. Sinclair writes from the perspective of forty years after the original publication, "Man-made calamities have taught the author of The Jungle that he had placed far too high an estimate upon the intelligence of the human race, and its moral qualities."

I suppose how individuals view good news and progress assurances from corporate or government sources nowadays depends a lot on whether they believe the nature of humanity and business has changed for the better over time or not. I've written enough over the last few months about the historical track record of humanity re pre-empting problems, that it shouldn't be a secret that I lean toward "not". I'd rather be safe than sorry when betting that humanity has Y2K tamed. If things had really changed that much, we wouldn't even be talking about the Year 2000 and computers. It all would have been dealt with years ago. If others call those advocating preparedness pessimists, so be it. I call it pragmatism.

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

Bonnie,

Good book. No, it's a great book. I understand Upton Sinclair was striving for fundamental social changes. Not just changes in the meat packing industry. (more men died in the Mexican American war from tainted meat than from bullets). Didn't Sinclair later run for office in California?

I'd like to find a tack toward fundamental change as well. The world is getting smaller every day. The affects of irresponsible behavior on the part of corporations, which is inherent in the way corporations are structured and treated legally, are impacting us more and more severely.

Giant corporate entities can wreak havoc like large scale natural disasters, and both are becoming larger and more frequent, as well as sometimes freakish.

Maybe we are too stupid to fix this. Maybe the powers that be are too corrupt to see beyond their self interests. Maybe the proletariat will never be given the chance to control their destiny. Maybe, but we still have to try.

Personally I get this sneaky suspicion the systems we operate under today will eventually break, for any number of reasons. Primarily because they aren't honest, or healthy. That may sound doomer but I always hold out the hope for putting it all back together in a much healthier, mutually beneficial manner.

Historically hasn't every revolution followed a pent-up or held back evolution? Hasn't every major societal change resulted in a transfer of power and control from the hands of the few to the hands of many more?

The manipulation of the press you mention is indicative of the prevention of natural evolutionary processes. Given good information perhaps we the people could guide our society, our lives and to some degree our destiny. Thwarting this process, it seems to me, must ultimately lead to unpleasant disruptions of some scale, up to and including revolution.

I don't suppose Y2K will lead to revolution but perhaps our social consceince will be alerted and we can look for better ways to conduct our affairs.

Does all this look like punctuated evolution? I think it does and evidently that is the way of the

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

Damn! Stoopid Microshaft browser.

That last line was "that seems to be the way of the world".

Namaste,

Steve

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

"Is something like this being asked of all the other infrastructures?" said NERC spokesman Eugene F. Gorzelnik.

"Mr. Foghorn, why do we have to do these worksheets? Mrs. Thistlebottom's third-grade class doesn't have to do them. It's just not fair."

-- Anonymous, September 25, 1999

"...PROLONGED nationwide blackout..." Maybe I missed a discussion on this, but I could have sworn that previous reports were just discounting a blackout of any duration. If so, hasn't the prognosis been degraded by the use of the word "prolonged"? (Of course, there is also the problem of what in the world do they mean by "prolonged" - for those of us in the chilly north, I assume that is at least long enough to freeze our pipes and small pets.)

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999

No, "prolonged" has been used at least since March.

The Disconnect Effect

-- Anonymous, September 27, 1999