Git yer gennys ready:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said Friday he was concerned about the possibility of power blackouts in some parts of the country this summer.

"We don't want to panic anybody, but we are concerned in the upper Midwest, in California, in the Southwest and parts of the Northeast," Richardson told CBS News.

"These are areas that are especially vulnerable because of inadequate transmission, inadequate capacity, and we're worried, so we have had a number of emergency drills," he said.

Earlier this week the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) issued its annual summer assessment, saying utilities should be able to meet demand but could fall short in some regions during hot peak air-conditioning days.

"We're working with state and local entities to make sure that if there are some blackouts that we're ready," Richardson said. "But we are concerned because our electricity grid is very old, it's antiquated; and as more people use cell phones and faxes and technologies and computers, there's more strain on the system," he added.

(Parts of the Northeast ALWAYS includes New Jersey for some reason... maybe cause we have way too many people stuffed into a tiny state? We had horrendous power outages all last summer, and this year we're already getting spike ridden power outages...)

-- kritter (kritter@adelphia.net), May 26, 2000