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The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release

Readout of the President’s Meeting with Electric Utility CEOs and their Trade Associations

Today, the President, joined by senior members of his response team, attended a meeting with electric utility executives and trade association representatives at the Department of Energy to discuss lessons learned during the response to Hurricane Sandy, as well as discuss ongoing preparations for the 2013 hurricane season which begins June 1st. In the meeting, the President thanked the utility executives for their efforts during the response to Hurricane Sandy and noted the strong working relationship demonstrated between industry and the federal government as companies worked to restore power to millions of customers in Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern States, including the resources and personnel shared to assist these efforts by a number of companies who were outside of the affected region. The President discussed that in the wake of major disasters like Hurricane Sandy extended power outages can have major impacts on communities and recovery efforts, and that beyond the lifesaving and life sustaining efforts which are the immediate priority in any response, one of the most important steps is power restoration.

In the meeting, utility executives discussed lessons learned during the Hurricane Sandy response that the industry and the federal government can apply to large power restoration efforts in the future.  The President thanked them for their partnership in these efforts and for their work with his emergency response team to coordinate and share best practices.  He made clear that his administration is committed to working closely with industry on suggestions that could further improve future response efforts.

At the meeting the President was joined by Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Deputy Chief of Staff Alyssa Mastromonaco, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Heather Zichal, Acting Secretary of Energy Daniel Poneman, Assistant Secretary for Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Patricia Hoffman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Energy Bill Bryan, Administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration Adam Sieminski and other members of his response team.

A list of attendees is below:

Tom Kuhn                             EEI
David Owens                       EEI
Brian Wolff                             EEI
Jo Ann Emerson                   NRECA
Joe Nipper                             APPA
Joy Ditto                                APPA
Jim Burpee                            Canadian Electric Association
Nick Akins                            AEP
Tony Alexander                   FirstEnergy
John Bilda                              Norwich, CT
Kevin Burke                          ConEd
Mel Coleman                        North Arkansas Electric Corp.
Chris Crane                           Exelon
Anita Decker                         BPA
Ken DeFontes                       BGE
Leo Denault                           Entergy
Charles Freni                        Central Hudson
Mark Gabriel                        WAPA
Lew Hay                                NextEra Energy
Tom King                              National Grid
Bob Kump                             Iberdrola
Ralph LaRossa                      PSE&G
Ron Litzinger                        Southern California Edison
Len McMillan                       Hydro One
Lee Olivier                            NSTAR
Paul Pallas                             Rockville Centre, NY
Mary Powell                         Green Mountain Power
Bob Powers                           AEP
Gil Quiniones                       NYPA
Joe Rigby                               PEPCO
Eric Silagy                             Florida Power & Light
Bill Spence                             PPL
Jim Torgerson                       UIL Holdings
Keith Trent                            Duke Energy
Geisha Williams                   PGE Corps
Rod West                               Entergy