An article “The U.S. Has More Power Outages Than Any Other Developed Country. Here’s Why,” that originally appeared in Popular Science on Aug. 17, and was reposted by MSN, among other sites, said power blackouts in the United States have become common. It cited the recent devastation caused by the Tropical Storm Isaias that blasted through the East Coast earlier this month, leaving more than 2 million people without power for days. “In Connecticut, more than 4,000 people lacked power a week after the storm,” the article said.
It pointed out that the outages have been on the rise in recent decades and that “the United States has more power outages than any other developed country. Research by Massoud Amin, an electrical and computer engineer at the University of Minnesota, found that while people living in the upper Midwest lose power annually for an average of 92 minutes, those in Japan experience only 4 minutes of blackouts per year. On top of that, utility companies have been slow to perform crucial maintenance, let alone upgrade their systems.”
