The lights went out

摘要

The great US blackout started on 14 August 2003, and lasted for 30 hours. It was the worst blackout in the USA for nearly 40 years, and it affected 50 million people, covering eight states from Ohio to New York. The US and Canadian governments have established a joint task force to investigate the causes of the power failure. The task force is headed by US energy secretary Spencer Abraham and Canada's minister of natural resources Herb Dhaliwal, and the task force is supported by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the North American Electric, Reliability Council (NERC).