"Extreme weather is putting America’s power grid to the test, with a year-long run of violent storms and record heat battering a system built for fairer skies."

"As the eastern United States struggles to recover from yet another weather shock, energy officials are acknowledging climate change as a force that finally has to be reckoned with -- even as concern grows over other threats that can set off catastrophic blackouts.

Winter storms, chains of heat waves and late June’s 'super derecho' -- a thunderstorm with straight-line winds that snapped electrical transmission towers and shredded power poles -- have forced the climate change issue and electric supply vulnerability to the top of an already-daunting list of blackout triggers. Those threats range from computer-hacking cyberterrorists to solar flares, utility mistakes and plain bad luck."

Jeff Montgomery, Dan D’Ambrosio, Greg Clary, and Todd B. Bates report for the Asbury Park Press August 27, 2012. [2]