British utility owns failed power grid

[Andy_Stephenson]

The New York power grid, which collapsed, plunging millions of Americans into darkness, is owned by the British utility National Grid Transco.

Shares in the company fell sharply in early trading yesterday as fears mounted that the blackout across the Niagara Mohawk transmission system would leave National Grid Transco facing multimillion-dollar compensation claims.

At one point shares were down by by 5 per cent, wiping almost £600m off the value of the company. But the shares recovered some of their losses later in the day after reports that the cause of the blackout may have been the collapse of several major transmission lines in the US Midwest, which are not part of the Niagara Mohawk grid.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=434095

[cprise]

1. Privatization and corporate globalization

...otherwise known as "absentee landlordism", strikes again, this time right in the American Northeast!