Trees root cause in U.S., Canadian blackout

[Thor_MN]

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/11/19/blackout.report.reut/index.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Shoddy tree-trimming around major power lines by Ohio utility FirstEnergy Corp. led to the failure of three key transmission lines and was the root cause of August's massive power outage, U.S. and Canadian blackout investigators said on Wednesday.

Industry experts say this is not the first time that trees have caused problems, pointing to widespread West Coast outages in August 1996 triggered by one offending tree that took out the entire grid.



Of course, the problem is the trees - not the poor maintenance of power lines. Better start cutting all those damn offending things down before they cause another power failure or wildfire!!!!

[Dover]

1. Yeah right.......and I'll bet it was the trees in all the other countries

that experienced blackouts too. It's an international arbor epidemic! Eeeeek!

Why don't governments level with people?

[Maple]

2. Oh fer....

Of all the stupid....

Yes, because trees are just new in the world, and we still don't know how to manage a power grid after all this......

Of all the stupid.....:mad:

I agree...trees just cause blackouts all over the world after all this time we've gone along without them...let's just get rid of all the trees.....Ooooooh this is annoying!

[OrAnarch]

3. Deregulate I say

More deregulation is the only thing that will save the power! Then the power companies can purchase and obtain a monopoly on the logging companies, take out the forests, and secure our power.

[blackcat77]

4. Damn terrorist trees!

That PROVES that we must clear cut all the forests!

[Dover]

6. ....this is the forest of no return..........treevil-doers!

[AP]

5. Cutting costs:

They said the company cut back on trimming trees, and they didn't have adequately knowledgeable/trained staff on duty when the crisis started.

Also, the public agency which is supposed to make sure that they're trimming the trees had their budget slashed and didn't have the manpower to go around and inspect the lines.

See, there's a basic incompatibility between running these utilities to make a profit, when their cutting costs can cause such wide-spread damege, losses, and inconvenience.

[fshrink]

7. Breaking: Gravity Cause in Hiroshima Blast!