While Americans have become ever more dependent upon electricity in their daily lives, a crucial part of the system that supports their way of life has not kept up. Yes, the country has built more power plants—enough to create a glut of power in most parts of the country.【B1】 ____________________.
California’s disastrous partial energy deregulation and the role played by Enron and other energy marketing companies in its power crisis have impeded changes in the national ability to deliver power.
【B2】 ____________________. But in one critical aspect, the system has become increasingly vulnerable: in the interconnections among the different regions. Both the number and size of the wires on the borders between regions are inadequate for the rising flow of electricity. This missing part creates the worst bottlenecks in the system.
Moreover, the deficiency also includes inadequate coordination among the regions in managing the flow of electricity. These interregional weaknesses are so far the most plausible explanation for the blackout on Thursday.
【B3】 ____________________. The problem is with the system of rules, organization, and oversight that governs the transmission network. It was set up for a very different era and is now caught in a difficult transition.
【B4】 ____________________.
Over all, for more than a decade, the power industry has been struggling with how to move from the old regulation to the new marketplace. The shift was driven by the view that half a century of state regulation had produced power prices that were too high and too varied among states. Factories and jobs were migrating from states with high electric power prices to those with lower prices. Yet the power industry is probably not even halfway there in its shift from regulation to the marketplace.【B5】 ____________________.
As a result, the development of the regional transmission organizations is irregular, varying from state to state. More than one third of the power transmitted is not under the control of regional transmission organizations. Some states tear that their cheap power would be sucked away to other markets; others do not want to subordinate state authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

A. But the transmission system is caught in the middle of the stalled deregulation of the American electric power industry.

B. How comes it that the lights went out when the nation still boasts the world best system, equipped with the most up-to-date hardware and supervised by good professionals?

C. What is preventing greater connection and coordination between regions? The technology exists, and is available; the economic benefits of relieving the bottlenecks between regions far exceed the costs by many billions of dollars.

D. The California power crisis and the power-trading scandals sent regulators back to the drawing board, slowing the development of new institutions, rules and investment to make competitive markets work.

E. Yet, despite claims in the wake of the last week’s blackout that the nation has a “third world” power grid, the regional networks are first world.

F. The blackout on Thursday and the power-trading scandals could also turn out to be a virtuous crisis, should the regulators come up with an institutional package that better solves the issues and makes free markets work.

G. The transmission networks were built to serve a utility system based on regulated monopolies. In the old days, there was no competition for customers. Today, the mission is to connect buyers and sellers seeking the best deal,irrespective of political boundaries and local jurisdictions.