Barton: Task Force Blackout Report Emphasizes The Need for Comprehensive Energy Plan

Report Shows Need for Reliability Standards

WASHINGTON (April 5) - Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, issued the following statement today after the U.S. - Canada Power System Outage Task Force released the final report on last year's blackout:

"Today's report confirms the need for a comprehensive energy policy, and specifically the importance of enacting mandatory reliability standards - which the House has twice passed. I hope the task force will encourage Senate leaders to pass the energy bill currently before them.

"Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reports that it is roughly half done with the 20 power-grid reliability audits that it needs to conduct before summer. That's a job that FERC needs to finish, and the sooner, the better."

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