CB _________
From: Richard.Stapells at bmo.com To: INTERNET-BOBOLSEN * <bobolsen at tao.ca> Subject: Y2K : Clueless in the Capitol Date: Wed, 3 Mar 1999 15:45:09 -0600
Clueless in the Capitol by Declan McCullagh , WiredNews 2:10 p.m. 2.Mar.99.PST WASHINGTON
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For all the fuss that accompanied the release of a new congressional study Tuesday, you'd think it was the Starr Report.
No such luck.
The reporters who squeezed into the Senate's TV gallery were treated to a 160-page treatise on the Year 2000 glitch.
For nearly a week before its release Tuesday, staffers on the Year 2000 committee dished out enticing tidbits from the report in order to spike the media's interest. The panel's chairmen even took to the Sunday talk shows to tell everyone to expect the report this week.
In fact, there was little new information.
Instead, it recapped the seemingly endless series of Senate hearings last year.
A typical line: "Jim Ellisor, Director of Information Systems for the Las Vegas Valley Water District, noted ... During her testimony, EPA Deputy Assistant Administrator Dana Minerva noted ..."
Many of the chapters summarized second-hand reports. The Gartner Group, a technology-consulting firm, is a main source of information on medical and international readiness.
So are unnamed sources. "One airport official has claimed that only one pipeline, originating in Houston, Texas, supplies aviation fuel to most of the airports on the Eastern Seaboard," the transportation chapter said.
Wouldn't the statement be more powerful -- not to mention alarming -- if someone had checked to be sure?
Among the report's conclusions:
* Say good-bye to cheap gas. "The implications on the price of gasoline may be significant." Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria are all more than a year behind the United States in Y2K fixes, and together they supply 38 percent of oil imports. If supply drops, prices rise.
* Hospitals and doctors' offices are in trouble. In the United States, the medical industry is the "worst prepared" for Y2K.
* Other countries are lagging. "Widespread disruptions will have a negative ripple effect on the world economy," said Robert Bennett, the Utah Republican who chairs the Y2K committee. The report says the United States is best prepared, as are Canada, Australia, and Great Britain. But don't think of traveling to many parts of Russia, Africa, and the Middle East.
* Time to call out the troops. There may be civil unrest in other countries, Bennett and vice chairman Christopher Dodd said.
* In the United States, "National emergency and security planning for Y2K-related systems failures is just beginning.... FEMA is now engaged in national emergency planning in the event of major and minor Y2K disruptions."
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Bob Olsen, Toronto bobolsen at tao.ca
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