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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