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	Senators Suggest Stockpiling By Declan McCullagh March 1, 1999 It sure didn't take Robert Bennett long to go from sneering about Y2K survivalism to recommending it. Yesterday the chairman of the Senate's special Year 2000 committee and his vice-chairman took to the Sunday talk shows to warn Americans to stockpile food and water. "This problem is real,'' Bennett, a Utah Republican, said on CBS's Face the Nation. "This will not be the end of the world as we know it. But we have to stay on top of it." He said rural electric companies are in the worst shape. "It's not unwise for people to do a little stockpiling,'' Christopher Dodd told NBC's Meet the Press. Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, is the vice-chair of the Y2K committee. Talk about an about-face. This is a far cry from Bennett's comments at a Senate hearing last June. Back then, he was complaining about "alarmists, extremists out there on the Internet" who were overreacting to computer glitches. The White House's Y2K honcho, John Koskinen, spent much of last year warning, "We need to avoid creating panic and precipitous, counterproductive activity." What happened? The official tide seems to have turned in the last few months. During closed-door meetings of the White House's Y2K council, for instance, attendees began worrying about whether they should advise the public to make personal preparations. At one council meeting, an Agriculture Department representative complained that the agency's most frequent telephone inquiry has become: "How many cans of food should I stockpile for my family?" But government officials fret that if Americans are told to prepare, people would cash in their mutual funds and spark bank runs -- activities that could send the country into a recession or worse. The solution: Advise just limited preparation. Bennett on Sunday said there's no need to buy electric generators or stockpile propane, for instance. "We should prepare for Y2K as we would prudently prepare for a potential winter storm," FEMA Deputy Director Mike Walker said at an Atlanta workshop last month, not mentioning what folks in Hawaii -- who have never seen snow, let alone a blizzard -- should do. At least one group is crying foul. Monday's Electricity Daily says Bennett is relying on old data. "This, of course, is completely opposite to what the electric utility industry has been saying about Y2K, and Bennett's staff appears to have ignored the considerable amount of information available on electric utility progress on Y2K... All industry analyses of the problem, including detailed assessments by the North American Electric Reliability Council, have shown that Y2K is unlikely to be a big problem for electric utilities, either as generators or as transmitters and distributors," the article says.		FEATURES Book Reviews Y2K already has spawned its own genre. We tell you what books are worth buying. Chip 'n Little Cartoons Chip 'n Little goes on TV Chip 'n Little visits John Koskinen Chip 'n Little saves the world Warning: This cartoon has been called "foolish and tasteless." Y2K from A to Z Y2K Haiku Traditionalists may be shocked. Mad Cow Culture What does Y2K have in common with today's Mad Cow Culture? Answer: Everything. Declan McCullagh's Y2K articles Psychology of Y2K LATEST NEWS As of December 31, 1999 Get Your T-Shirt Quick Bill Gates Does Y2K Reader Feedback A Sarcastic Calendar Cooking After the Apocalypse A Real Y2K Disaster Hitchhiker's Guide Meets Y2K