Mari Nahn, the attorney, ". . .who had told a legislative committee that her company -- Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison -- is encouraging customers to look into alternative energy sources, including home generators, because of possible computer glitches", was the Assistant General Counsel for Wisconsin Power & Light as of June,1997.

Alliant is a holding company for WP&L and IES Industries of Cedar Rapids and Interstate Power Co. of Dubuque, Iowa.

It is unclear what position Ms. Nahn holds (held?) at Alliant, but it may be safely assumed that she was not at the bottom of the pecking order!

(This link concerns the merger of Alliant with the other two) and (this link is to Alliant's Home Page) .

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), October 10, 1998

Answers

Great research hardliner. Thanks for the info.

It's a shame Ms. Nahn wasn't directly quoted, or it would most definitely have been displayed rather prominently in my presentation.

Gary North's take on the retraction was priceless: If the recommendation wasn't for customers, who was it for? Employees?

-- Steve Hartsman (hartsman@ticon.net), October 11, 1998.

To date though I have not seen where anyone BUT the attorny said this. No press relases that the company ever said this, no fliers in bills, no company newsletter...nothing. Does anyone have a link or copy to show otherwise?

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), October 11, 1998.

Several months ago, an article in the Wisconsin State Journal said that Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E) was recommending generators for its customers in case of power outages. (This is not the same utility company, Alliant, that has been discussed in this forum) This article appeared right after I became aware of Y2K. I called the company and asked if this was due to Y2K. He said no, sometimes the power goes out because of lightening, sqirrels, etc. Why would they be recommending generators now, when they never have done that before? I then asked if they were Y2K compliant. He almost yelled, "Are you kidding, we have millions and millions of lines of code to go through." They were working on it. He told me a home generator would be a good idea after discussing Y2K for several minutes. A few weeks ago, I called Alliant Power Company when I received a notice in my bill about Y2K. (They gave an 800 number to call if we had questions about it) The woman I spoke with said it was a huge problem for everyone and that a generator would be a good idea.

-- Dave (dave22@concentric.net), October 11, 1998.