Commentary
Once again, the consensus of government and private weather forecasters is that this coming summer will witness above-average temperatures in most parts of the United States. Already, warnings have been sounded that the United States’ power grids will be under great stress—as has been the case for a number of years—with a strong probability of blackouts and brownouts in some parts of the country. For example, the summer reliability assessment of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) published on May 18 cited the 15-state Midcontinent Independent System Operator as the regional grid most likely to see a meltdown this summer.