EOW May 2007

Transat lant ic Cable

cellular company. Vivendi asserts that Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile USA , colluded with a Polish investor to illegally transfer its shares in the Polish company, wiping out a $2.5 billion investment. The latest development came more than four months after Vivendi sued the German telecommunications company in Federal District Court in Seattle under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, or RICO, a law originally intended to combat organised crime. The RICO suit, which is considered by legal experts to be a long shot, follows years of unsuccessful attempts by Vivendi to recover its investment by way of European courts. New England’s power grid comprises nearly 8,000 miles of high-voltage lines that feed local lines. Now, the two biggest utilities in southern New England are developing plans to spend up to $1 billion constructing 80-100 miles of high- voltage electric transmission lines to make the regional power grid more reliable and keep up with steadily growing energy demand. As reported by Peter J Howe in the Boston Globe (7 th March), within months National Grid USA and Northeast Utilities

will present state regulators in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island with proposed routes. For years, US Energy Department and regional electric officials have been warning that the New England power grid needs to be upgraded. With new financial incentives provided by the 2005 national energy bill, several projects are getting underway. Even so, the latest expansion plans are almost certain to arouse local concern. Mr Howe noted that all seven corridors where the utilities want to upgrade transmission capacity already have power-line rights of way that are hundreds of feet wide and filled with tall towers and electric lines.

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Dorothy Fabian USA Editor

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EuroWire – May 2007