WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham announced today he will meet with Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday, August 20, 2003.

President Bush announced Friday that Secretary Abraham and Minister Dhaliwal will co-chair a joint U.S.-Canadian task force to investigate the causes of Thursday’s power outage and to identify ways to prevent a recurrence.

"Minister Dhaliwal and I will start working immediately to find out what caused this massive blackout and to keep it from happening again," Secretary Abraham said. "Reliable electric power is the lifeblood of the economy for both our countries. And it’s more than just a personal convenience – it’s essential to the health and safety of our citizens."

The US/Canada joint task force is directed to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected North America and seek solutions to help prevent future outages. 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.

"More than 50 million people in two nations suddenly lost electricity in this blackout," said Abraham. "It put many people in potential personal danger, it cost the U.S. and Canadian economies millions of dollars, and it inconvenienced everyone. We owe our citizens an explanation of this incident and an assurance that steps will be taken to address the cause."

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