August 20, 2003

Energy Department agrees to lead sweeping investigation to determine precisely how power was lost to huge swath of nation's Midwest and Northeast on Aug 14; Sec Spencer Abraham will coordinate investigation with Canadian counterpart; promises that investigation will make no attempt to shield electric power industry from responsibility for blackout, but he takes dim view of early speculation on causes of blackout, some of which has focused on failures in high-voltage transmission lines in Ohio controlled by FirstEnergy Corp; several experts say only human error could explain hourlong sequence of transmission-line short circuits in Ohio that preceded blackout; others describe trends in eastern grid over last three years hinting at growing, and potentially dangerous, imbalances between amount of power flowing in from plants and amount used by customers; photo; graph shows growing instability of frequency at which grid has been transmitting power since 1999 (M)

Gov Gray Davis makes television address in which he pleads with Californians to reject attempt to recall him, describing it as part of right-wing effort 'to steal elections Republicans cannot win': argues that this recall is expensive, undemocratic, bad precedent and bound to breed more recalls; apologizes for his handling of state's energy crisis, but says that he has been hampered by Republican legislators and 'massive fraud' by energy trading companies and that replacing him will only worsen state's troubles; speech comes at critical juncture in which he is fighting growing perception in Democratic Party that his ouster is inevitable; Lt Gov Cruz M Bustamante, only prominent Democrat on recall ballot, in essence kicks off his campaign by presenting plan to raise $8 billion in new income, tobacco and commercial property taxes to solve state's budget problems; his campaign appears to be gaining ground, with poll showing him running even with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Legislature's Latino caucus putting its weight behind him should voters choose to recall Davis; photos (M)

Laws allowing Italians to retire in their late 50's have made Italy's quality of life among best in world, but its pension system is beginning to feel effects of accommodating its aging population; workers with 35 years on job can retire if they are at least 57; only 28 percent of Italians aged 55 to 64 work; Italy's population has hovered around 58 million for 20 years, and government forecasts it will fall to 53 million by 2050; trend, which would shift ratio of older to younger people, spells trouble for system like Italy's, where workers pay pensions of older generations; Italy's problem is made more acute by fact that only 55 percent of Italians aged 15 to 64 work, compared with European Union average of 64 percent; graph (M)

Mayor Michael R Bloomberg honors 29 New York City workers who performed above and beyond call of duty during blackout; photos (L)

BYD Co of Shenzhen says profit rose 27 percent to 325 million yuan ($39 million) in first half of year as sales rose 57 percent to 1.49 billion yuan ($180 million); plans to build factory in Beijing to help it meet increasing demand for its rechargeable lithium-ion batteries; graph (S)