Statement by the Press Secretary

The United States and Canada have today agreed to form a joint task force to identify the causes of the recent power outage that affected North America and to seek solutions to help prevent future outages. The Task Force will be jointly chaired by United States Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Herb Dhaliwal. Federal, state, provincial, and local authorities, as well as private sector electricity providers, will be invited to contribute to the work of the Task Force.