From§Each

Page A227From§Eachthe morning edition — 2 November 2026

THE OUTAGE

Washington says it won World War II faster than plugging in a power plant, the lights go out.

By LouOne More Question

“We won World War II faster than we can plug in a power plant”, 2 November 2026 (Photo via Washington Examiner — the original report)

As it ran on the front

I called Pepco's public affairs line yesterday afternoon because there was something about the timing I didn't follow, and when it's electricity, I figure the utility that runs the lines is the one to ask. I told the man who picked up: help me with this.

Here's what I was turning over. The Washington Examiner ran a piece on November 2nd arguing America won World War II faster than it can plug in a power plant. A few hours after that ran, by the Examiner's own later report, Pepco customers across Foggy Bottom lost power — the State Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and George Washington University, a school, though the wire doesn't say what was running there, so I won't guess.…

…(cont) That report described the outage as an "unscheduled loss of electrical power." I wrote that phrase down because it stuck with me. Was this outage on anyone's calendar ahead of time? I don't know, and the man at Pepco didn't either.

I'm not saying the piece caused the outage — I don't have anything that says that, and Pepco didn't either. I only have two times written down, one after the other: when the piece went up, and when the power went down. The second one comes after the first.

While I had Pepco on the phone I asked about the bill side too. Those are her words.

My car's been at the shop since July for three things. One was the fan belt — that one's done, fixed on the first visit. A second item on the same order is also done. The third is still open; I call about it every couple of weeks. Two finished, one not. I only mention it because I spent the afternoon thinking about things that get finished and things that just sit.

Here's the other date I had written down. On September 15th, the House was expected to vote on a bill about data centers and what they can push onto a regular electric bill. The Hill had it as likely to pass that week. That was seven weeks ago. I can't find a vote since — not yes, not no. As far as my notes go, it's still sitting.

The day before that bill was supposed to come up, on September 14th, the EPA finished something. Finished — not expected to. A rule limiting pollution from power plants, which make up about a quarter of the country's climate pollution by the agency's own older numbers, got, in the advocates' word, eviscerated. That one got done.

So that's my question for Pepco, and the Examiner: of those two things sitting on the table in September, which one needed a vote in Congress to get finished, and which one didn't?

I'm sorry — I keep coming back to that word from the outage report. I won't say "unscheduled" again; I'll put it another way. The power loss didn't have a date on it ahead of time. The vote on the ratepayer bill did — September 15th, same as I wrote it down. It just hasn't happened yet.

Oh — hold on, one more thing, before you go. The EPA's rule finished on September 14th. The House's bill was supposed to come up the next day, September 15th. Which one of those actually happened?

“The rule that frees power plants from pollution limits got finished by mid-September; the bill that would cap what data centers push onto your electric bill has been sitting since the same month — that's not gridlock, that's a choice about whose paperwork gets a stamp. Your bill shows up every month whether Congress does or not. One day left to vote on who answers for that.”
Sal
“The op-ed's point is really about permitting speed, nothing to do with some grid hiccup in Foggy Bottom a few hours later — unrelated, coincidence, next question. And sure, the EPA rolled back pollution limits on power plants, but that's cutting red tape, that's — wait, does cutting a pollution rule make the plant turn on faster, or just let it pollute more while it's already running? Did I say that? That doesn't sound like me. As for the ratepayer bill, these things take time, it's not blocked, it's just — still on the calendar, I guess.”
Chip

Earlier in this story

The receipts

We won World War II faster than we can plug in a power plant
Washington Examinerright§

The United States has always been a leader in energy development. Before we were even a country, North America’s vast timber reserves provided masts for sailing ships, logs for housing, and fuel for heating and manufacturing. Later, our mountains of coal (which are still nowhere near exhausted) and oceans of petroleum powered an…

Power outages hit Washington affecting government agencies and GWU
Washington Examinerright§

A power outage in the Foggy Bottom area of Washington, D.C., is affecting thousands of Potomac Electric Power Company customers, including government agency buildings and George Washington University. The State Department has reportedly been affected by the outage, with several agency facilities “experiencing an unscheduled loss of…

· 'Actively Malevolent': Trump EPA to Eviscerate Rules on Planet-Heating Pollution From Power Plants from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026

· House set to vote on electricity ratepayer bill from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026

This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.