[budman_2001]

Thu Aug 14, 9:32 PM ET

The CN Tower is silhouetted against the setting sun, as Toronto was faced with a massive power outage, August 14, 2003. The office of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said that a lightning strike on a power plant near Niagara Falls, New York, was the cause of the massive power blackout that hit large areas of North America. (Andrew Wallace/Reuters)

[ChadGore]

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY June 13, 2001:"One of the concerns, obviously, is the aging power grid and the growing problem that we have in getting electricity from the power plant to the light switch. It's clear that we must upgrade and expand the power grid. If we put more connections in place, we'll go a long way towards avoiding future blackouts."