Until the investigations are completed, the only thing we can say for certain is that we do not know the precise cause of the cascading power outages that triggered the largest blackout in history and affected 50 million people from the Midwest to the East. Even industrial customers in Maine felt the affects of voltage swings.

Many have been quick to say that we need to prevent a recurrence by investing billions in our transmission grid, re-regulating the electric industry, or making reliability standards mandatory. It is premature to say whether any of these steps would have prevented the Aug. 14 blackout, which may have been caused by something as simple as human error or a malfunction in protective equipment.

That being said, our nation’s energy infrastructure is too important to our economy, our quality of life and our environment to ignore. We must focus increased attention on this infrastructure to ensure energy security and reliability going forward.

The United States has 158,000 miles of main electric transmission lines and 3.3 million miles of oil and gas pipelines. Disruptions in the delivery of electricity, oil or gas due to natural disasters, terrorism, aging infrastructure or other factors, create huge economic and environmental losses.

Power outages and power quality disturbances cost the U.S. economy more than $119 billion annually according to the Electric Power Research Institute.

Compared to many other states, Maine is fairly well-situated when it comes to energy security and reliability. Maine residents can take pride in the fact that the state has the ability to generate nearly one-half of its electricity, a higher percentage than any other state in the nation from indigenous renewable energy sources like water and wood wastes that do not require pipelines or oil tankers.

Maine has a large number of relatively small power plants dispersed throughout the state. These plants have been sited close to the electric users, where possible, to minimize the need for transmission lines and to reduce losses caused by flowing power over those lines. Maine’s utilities have very strict rules when a new generator connects to the grid to ensure that the grid remains strong.

Maine’s fuel diversity, dispersal of plants and strong interconnection rules lend assurance that one unforeseen incident will not take down the state’s entire electric grid.

We are doing well, but we can do more, and we will do more. Gov. Baldacci is committed to further increasing Maine’s energy security through new renewable energy projects and increased energy efficiency. The state has purchased a 100 percent renewable electricity product for nearly 800 of its accounts. The state is committed to implementing significant energy efficiency improvements in state buildings.

The recent renovation of the Department of Transportation office building in Augusta is estimated to reduce that building’s energy consumption by 30 percent to 50 percent.

These investments also will help reduce stress on existing infrastructure and lower the need to construct new transmission lines over the long run.

The East Coast has not had a widespread power outage since 1965. While we still do not know whether we could have prevented last week’s outage, we do know that we can do a better job to ensure energy security and reliability.

Continuing to invest in needed infrastructure in Maine and throughout the region, increasing fuel diversity and reducing energy demand both overall and at peak hours of the day will help. In addition, we can speed up the process and reduce the cost of new generation and transmission if we work together.

I know that Gov. Baldacci plans support just such action when the New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers meet early next month.

Beth A. Nagusky is Maine’s director of Energy Independence and Security.