Readout of the President's Meeting with Electric Utility CEOs and Their Trade Associations

Today, the President, joined by senior members of his response team, attended a meeting with electric utility executives and trade association representatives at the Department of Energy to discuss lessons learned during the response to Hurricane Sandy, as well as discuss ongoing preparations for the 2013 hurricane season which begins June 1st. In the meeting, the President thanked the utility executives for their efforts during the response to Hurricane Sandy and noted the strong working relationship demonstrated between industry and the federal government as companies worked to restore power to millions of customers in Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern States, including the resources and personnel shared to assist these efforts by a number of companies who were outside of the affected region. The President discussed that in the wake of major disasters like Hurricane Sandy extended power outages can have major impacts on communities and recovery efforts, and that beyond the lifesaving and life sustaining efforts which are the immediate priority in any response, one of the most important steps is power restoration.

In the meeting, utility executives discussed lessons learned during the Hurricane Sandy response that the industry and the federal government can apply to large power restoration efforts in the future. The President thanked them for their partnership in these efforts and for their work with his emergency response team to coordinate and share best practices. He made clear that his administration is committed to working closely with industry on suggestions that could further improve future response efforts.

At the meeting the President was joined by Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal, and other senior members of his response team.

A list of attendees is below:

Tom Kuhn - EEI

David Owens - EEI

Brian Wulff - EEI

Jo Ann Emerson - NRECA

Joe Nipper - APPA

Joy Ditto - APPA

Jim Burpee - Canadian Electric Association

Nick Akins - AEP

Tony Alexander - FirstEnergy

John Bilda - Norwich, CT

Kevin Burke - ConEd

Mel Coleman - North Arkansas Electric Corp.

Chris Crane - Exelon

Anita Decker - BPA

Ken DeFontes - BGE

Leo Denault - Entergy

Charles Freni - Central Hudson

Mark Gabriel - WAPA

Lew Hay - NextEra Energy

Tom King - National Grid

Bob Kump - Iberdrola

Ralph LaRossa - PSE&G

Ron Litzinger - Southern California Edison

Len McMillan - Hydro One

Lee Olivier - NSTAR

Paul Pallas - Rockville Centre, NY

Mary Powell - Green Mountain Power

Bob Powers - AEP

Gil Quiniones - NYPA

Joe Rigby - PEPCO

Eric Silagy - Florida Power & Light

Bill Spence - PPL

Jim Torgerson - UIL Holdings

Keith Trent - Duke Energy

Geisha Williams - PGE Corps

Rod West - Entergy