President Obama met with his response team, electric utility executives and industry trade associations this week to discuss the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy and preparation for future extreme weather events. The meeting was closed to the media, but a few utility executives touched on what conversations took place.
Tom Kuhn, President of the Edison Electric Institute, an association of electric power companies, said, “The president came onto one of those calls before the hurricane hit in New York and New Jersey and made a strong call to make electricity a first responder issue. He talked about the fact that he would have no tolerance for red tape in an emergency.”
According to Kuhn, the president told those present at the private meeting that he wants utility linemen to be first responders during future weather events. This would make it easier for utilities to send workers where they're needed, regardless of whether it's in their distribution territory or not.
Kuhn noted a federal mandate may not be enough as a result of rules in specific states: "We really need to further identify the processes for these particular issues, I don't think that with one executive order you can solve them."
Nick Akins, president and CEO of American Electric Power, echoed that message: "His message was pretty much right on line with others in the group--that there are some lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy and that he was very forceful during Superstorm Sandy that we want to make sure that we can respond quickly and get all the red tape out of the way."