WASHINGTON — “It’s entirely possible that we could have significant
power outages” as a result of Y2K, warns former Secretary of Energy
Donald Hodel.
Hodel was responding to a recent report by the North American
Electric Reliability Council, which sets the operating and engineering
standards for the reliability of America’s electric power grids. NERC
says the utilities are basically in good shape regarding the year 2000
computer glitch.
“The problem is, they don’t know,” says Hodel, who served in the
Reagan administration as secretary of energy and has also served as
administrator of Bonneville Power. “And another problem is that they
don’t know how to test for Y2K.”
Hodel was speaking here at a May 8 conference on “Y2K and the
Presidency” held by the Conservative Caucus. He wasn’t the only one at
the conference to question the NERC report.
Jim Lord, a prominent Y2K author and newsletter editor, noted that
the NERC report claims utilities have completed 75 percent of the work
needed to prepare for Y2K. NERC is including all the unbroken systems
in that 75 percent figure, contends Lord.
“Let’s say you have a flat tire and leave your car at a car-repair
shop to get the tire fixed,” Lord explains. “You call later and ask how
they’re doing. ‘We’re 75 percent done,’ says the mechanic, but you
don’t realize he’s counting the three tires that weren’t flat in the
first place.”
“You have no idea what NERC means when it says they are 75 percent
done,” Lord concluded.
As another example of “Spin City” in action, Lord cited the FAA’s
much-publicized testing of air-traffic control systems at the Denver
International Airport. Those systems were not affected when their dates
were set to Jan. 1, 2000, according to the Air Transport Association.
“But the FAA has 430 computer systems to get ready for Y2K,” said
Lord, “222 of them related to air-traffic control. The Denver test
involved 6 systems, used two airplanes, and lasted four hours.
Everything was extensively pre-tested, and they only showed the stuff
that worked. This was a PR stunt, not a test.”
“The first thing we have to do,” said Larry Klayman, founder of
Judicial Watch, “is to find out
exactly what the government has in mind to do to us. We don’t know —
in regard to Y2K, Kosovo, or anything. And the best way to find out is
through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.”
Judicial Watch has successfully used FOIA requests to pry information
out of government files relating to the various Clinton scandals. “FOIA
is the cheapest, easiest tool we have,” Klayman told the conference.
“Judicial Watch will be issuing FOIA requests in regard to
Y2K,” Klayman promised. “We will also be putting information on how to
do this on our web site,” he added, noting that conservatives must start
doing this immediately if they want to find out what “emergency” plans
are being contemplated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency or any
other agency. The reason why: The government agency has 20 working days
to respond to your FOIA request, followed by an administrative appeal of
another 30 days, before you can even initiate a court action if you
don’t get everything you want.
“The best way we can prevent any Clinton power grab is to remove him
as president before 2000,” noted Klayman. “And I believe that this
president and his administration will unravel in the next six
months. But if that does not happen, we have to be prepared to
take him on.”
Another speaker at the conference was William J. Olson, who has
gained a reputation as the “executive order attorney” with his extensive
research in the area. Olson is general counsel to the Free Speech
Coalition, and has served in the past as chairman of the Legal Services
Corporation board of directors and as special counsel to the board of
governors of the U.S. Postal Service.
Olson explained to the conference attendees that executive orders are
just one of 24 different types of presidential directives. From
Washington to Clinton, presidents have issued more than 13,000
directives. Many are legitimate, regulating the activities of the
executive branch, but others are blatant usurpations of legislative
powers or violations of civil liberties. One of the Watergate
committees reported that President Woodrow Wilson, for example, used
presidential directives to exercise “dictatorial powers.”
Olson also explained to the audience why power-hungry presidents like
to declare national emergencies. Since the 1970s Congress has granted
“extraordinary powers” to the president more than 400 times — but to go
into effect, those powers have to be triggered by a declaration of
national emergency.
President Clinton, said Olson, has issued 13 declarations of national
emergencies — the most of any president — and we are currently living
under 14 separate emergency powers.
“Congress ought not to be delegating extraordinary powers to
any president,” Olson warned, “and Congress has done very little
to stop the abuses. Tremendous latent powers have been put in the hands
of the president.”
Tomorrow: Part 2 of a report on the conference, “Y2K and the
Presidency: What Can Be Done to Block the Clinton Power Grabs?”
Network ‘news judgment’ depends on who benefits
Tim Graham