15 August 2003

U.S., Canada to Form Task Force on Cause of Power Outage

Would seek ways to help prevent future outages

The United States and Canada agreed August 15 to form a joint task force to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected parts of both countries and to seek solutions to help prevent future outages, the White House announced August 15.

Following is the text of the White House statement:

(begin text)

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
August 15, 2003

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

The United States and Canada have today agreed to form a joint task force to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected North America and to seek solutions to help prevent future outages. The Task Force will be jointly chaired by United States Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal. Federal, state, provincial, and local authorities, as well as private sector electricity providers, will be invited to contribute to the work of the Task Force.

(end text)