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EuroWire – May 2007

60

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.

Dorothy Fabian

USA Editor