Energy ways around the cash crunch: Options for retracking the U.S. utilities onto their traditional path of adequate and reliable supply

Unless effective measures are quickly taken, the United States is faced with the grim possibility of electricity shortages by the end of the decade. These shortages could manifest themselves in localized brownouts and even blackouts — the all-too-possible nadir of a decline in reliability and service stemming from the currently forecast effects of continuing utility financial difficulties. Such brownouts and blackouts would certainly have a dire effect not only on the residential consumer, but on an economy trying to recover from present recessionary trends.