Renegade militias now control Iraq's electric grid

As George W. Bush and Hillary Clinton both spent time this week touting some successes of the troop surge, Iraq's Electricity Minister complained that renegade militia groups have seized control of the country's electric grid, especially in Baghdad:

Armed groups increasingly control the antiquated switching stations that channel electricity around Iraq , the electricity minister said Wednesday.

That is dividing the national grid into fiefs that, he said, oftenrefuse to share electricity generated locally with Baghdad and otherpower-starved areas in the center of Iraq.

...The government lost the ability to control the grid centrally after theAmerican-led invasion in 2003, when looters destroyed electricaldispatch centers, the minister, Karim Wahid, said in a news briefingattended also by United States military officials.

The Iraqi Electricity Minister has been saying for some time that his agency is powerless in its effort to regain control of the grid.  This comes just one week after a new report that found Baghdad residents get between one and two hours of electricity each day, down from five to six hours earlier this year.