From our friend Drew Parkhill at CBN News dated Aug. 4 <:)=

(AP-Washington Post)

Cautious statements from Washington:

The electric utility industry told the government Tuesday it is prepared to deal with any Y2K computer problems, but federal officials reacted cautiously -- and promised spot checks of power plants in the months to come.

``I can't declare total victory yet,'' Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told the industry representatives. He said consumers ``deserve the answer to a simple question -- whether their utility's critical systems are ready for the year 2000...''

``If New Year' Day 2000 were tomorrow, we believe the lights would remain on in North America,'' Michehl R. Gent, the council's president, told a news conference.

Gent said the nuclear power plants ``are in good shape'' and the electricity distribution systems of both private and publicly owned utilities have largely been verified -- 96. 3 percent -- as prepared for the end of the year transition. Another 3.2 percent of the distribution systems have reported they will be ready by the end of the year, and one-half of 1 percent have not been heard from, the reliability council said.

John Koskinen, assistant to President Clinton for Y2K conversion, expressed some concern at the news conference about power companies postponing action on some critical tests until later in the year so as not to disrupt electricity service. He said these tests shouldn't be delayed too long, leaving enough time to correct errors and unexpected problems...

Richardson promised his department would ``crack the whip'' against utilities that have not yet completed their critical tests and would conduct spot-check audits on utilities to make sure information they're reporting is correct.

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), August 05, 1999

Answers

Sysman, I'll put the same comment here I put on the euy2k forum:

It's interesting that there's "caution" in Washington and that Koskinen has "concerns". Mr. Koskinen seems worried that utilities might just breath a sigh of relief now that the industry has reached a PR peak, and put their focus on other things.

Well, I say "Why not?" If it's already a done deal that the lights will stay on, why shouldn't tests be delayed, hmm? Why test anymore at all? What, Koskinen and the Secretary of Energy didn't believe Mr Gent's statement below?

``If New Year' Day 2000 were tomorrow, we believe the lights would remain on in North America,'' Michehl R. Gent, the council's president, told a news conference.

Right now a scene from The Wizard of Oz is runnning through my head. The one where Ms. Gulch has come to take Toto away and Dorothy's Aunt is frustrated in saying what she really wants to. I can identify.

-- Bonnie Camp (bonniec@mail.odyssey.net), August 05, 1999.

Guess Koskinen hasn't gone up against Hoff yet :).. Hoff'd set him straight....

-- Lisa (lisa@work.now), August 05, 1999.