Think about the threats to law, order and safety from a lack of lighting, of telephone service, of security systems, and of things as fundamental as timed stoplights. Think about the economic and the commercial ramifications of not being able to get power to your customers. Think about the impact on law enforcement and on emergency services. Think about the economic impact on large and small businesses of losing pc networks, fax and phone service, and the internet. More and more, our economy is being driven by information technology.
Reliability is where the information economy hits the energy road.
We can not jeopardize it without jeopardizing our economic future. Ladies and gentlemen, of all people, you know better. Whether you're engineers struggling with the problems of loop flow and an exploding number of scheduled interchanges, or systems designers trying to figure out who gets to redispatch a competitive generator to protect someone else's transmission lines, you know these problems have to be solved before a robust competitive market can develop. We cannot, should not and will not move to a competitive electricity market until we are absolutely certain that the infrastructure that supports so much of our economy is ready. Let's work to get it ready.