The US and Europe have both received sharp warnings this autumn about the inadequacy of their electricity supply de-velopment. In October, the North Am-erican Electric Reliability Council (Nerc), designated overseer of the US and Canadian grids, announced that within two years, electricity supply margins would drop below minimum safe levels in much of the US. Nerc's report found: "The projected de-cline in margins reflects a short-term resource acquisition strategy that has been the norm for most of the past 10 years."

Europeans had watched the blackouts and market chaos in California in 2000-2001, along with the bankruptcy of Enron and other power companies, with half-open eyes and faint amusement. On November 4 this year, though, a routine shutdown of a power line across the river Ems by Eon led to a blackout that hit millions of users across Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. It turns out that the US and Europe have been similarly neglectful and complacent about their inadequate policies on electricity.