Shortly after 4:00pm Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday 14 August, the lights went out – literally. The northeastern US and parts of Canada as far north as Ottawa suffered a major power outage affecting approximately 61,800 megawatts in an area covering around 50 million customers. Even as utilities worked tirelessly to restore power to many areas within 24 hours, politicians, industry executives and commentators were already on national television arguing for legislative and regulatory changes in the way the US regulates electricity – blaming each other for the stalemate between Congress, federal and state regulators which has prevented meaningful reform.
It was only late on 31 July, after months of speculation and weeks of acrimonious wrangling, that the US Senate passed last year’s Democrat-sponsored energy bill by a vote of 84 to 14, in lieu of a different energy bill proposed by the new Republican majority. The bill passed by the Senate, and similar legislation passed by the House on 11 April, will now be reconciled by a joint House-Senate conference committee.
