By Jackie Frank
WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (Reuters) - With electricity restored for most people hit by the worst blackout in North American history, Washington policy-makers traded blame on Sunday and debated what needs to be done to prevent such a massive failure from happening again.
U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told NBC's "Meet the Press" there was "a lot of confidence" that the outages which cascaded Thursday afternoon across communities from Michigan to Connecticut and Ontario, Canada would not recur.
The investigation to pinpoint the cause is focusing on three power transmission lines near Cleveland, Ohio.
Appearing on several television news programs, Abraham said the power crisis should convince Congress to finally pass the energy plan that the White House sent to Congress in May 2001 which calls for more investment in the power transmission network.
But there is considerable disagreement over whether to separate the immediate problem of energy reliability from a broad U.S. energy plan in the final stage in Congress.
Congress on Monday opens its own investigation that House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Billy Tauzin, a Republican from Louisiana, said was aimed at making sure the legislation does everything necessary to ensure electricity reliability.
The long-term cost of improvements to the neglected power grid is expected to be in the billions of dollars, which Abraham said customers will ultimately have to pay. "Ratepayers will pay the bill because they are the ones that benefit," he said on CBS.
STENCH FILLS NEW YORK STREETS
Meanwhile, the tens of millions of people who were affected by the electricity outage were returning to normal life much as after the cleanup from a major snowfall.
In New York City, garbage collectors worked overtime to clear the streets of piles of trash bags and a stench filled the air from rotting food that delicatessens, restaurants and residents were forced to throw out because refrigerators were off for more than a day.
Power had resumed on Friday after 29 hours. On Saturday, subway trains began running and stores and restaurants opened.
Michigan, which had been 60 percent blacked out, was now back up but water still needed to be boiled due to problems in the water purification system, Gov. Jennifer Granholm told CBS.
A few customers in Michigan are still suffering occasional blackouts, said Granholm.
"A GRID THAT IS OLD"
Former Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was widely quoted last week as saying the United States had a "Third World grid," which has too long been neglected.
Abraham acknowledged that "we have a grid that is old," and that the United States needs to generate more electricity as well as make grid improvements and conserve more.
Michigan Rep. John Dingell, the senior Democrat on the House energy panel, said he favored solving the immediate problem, leaving aside for now other controversial issues such as the Bush plan to drill in Alaska's National Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
"Right now we have a crisis, and which we saw at work. That could be back at any time. So let us commence the addressing of it, and to do so quickly," Dingell said on "Fox News Sunday."
But Abraham told CBS that the various energy issues facing the country should not be separated. "I think that would be a huge mistake," if the oil drilling were set aside from the solutions to the transmission problems.
But Granholm said the bottom line was reliability. "I speak for those who want to flip the switch and see the power come on. All of the technical issues about the investigation, et cetera, are lost on, I think, most Americans." (Additional reporting by Grant McCool in New York)