The Day the Magic Stopped
How the blackout happened.

By Nick Schulz

Back in 2001, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney mapped out their vision for America's energy future in the National Energy Policy Report (NEPR). At the time, Vice President Cheney said:

Quote:Transmission grids stand in need of repair, upgrading, and expansion. If we put these connections in place, we'll go a long way toward avoiding blackouts.

We all know what happened last week, so there's no point in rehashing the details. The NEPR is destined to become another "hindsight" publication, like the Hart-Rudman report in early 2001 on the threat of terrorism that said:

Quote:The combination of unconventional weapons proliferation with the persistence of international terrorism will end the relative invulnerability of the U.S. homeland to catastrophic attack. A direct attack against American citizens on American soil is likely over the next quarter century.

We all know what happened nine months later. Who knows, maybe 2001 was a particularly good year for prescient government reports (maybe we ought to go back and find out what other government warnings were issued two years ago).

A little cynicism is to be expected in Washington, and sometimes can even be a good thing. But until last week, the Bush administration's efforts to draw attention to the nation's energy problems

Bill Richardson also predicted it -- or so he says. I have a tendency to believe he has something of a case, based on what he was saying on the Sunday talk shows.

Look Bush's energy bill got caught up in the ANWR provision -- and possibly several other things, but certainly ANWR.

That can be spun by either side looking to make a partisan attack. But the fact is, the bill was blocked because of ANWR.

It seems to me that if action is required right now on the grid, then those provisions should be removed from the overall energy bill and presented seperately.

I doubt many of the legislators who are against drilling in ANWR are going to be cowed into voting for that overall package, even now -- and I hope the Bush administration doesn't try.