CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Southern governors Monday advocated a state-based or regional approach to prevent the sort of sweeping blackout that crippled the Northeast this summer.

"It seems that every crisis that hits us these days, we look to the federal government," said Gov. Mark Sanford. "I would be very resistant to this expansion of federal power."

Added Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia: "We really don't know what happened yet, but we're going pell mell toward a national solution. We're talking about tough policy decisions that must be made within states by their regulatory boards and by their public."

Governors joined industry representatives and experts for a panel session on energy issues in Charleston as part of the 69th annual meeting of the Southern Governors' Association.

The panel was jointly hosted by the Southern States Energy Board, which oversees power issues for the region. West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise is chairman of both the SGA and the board, which elected him to another, one-year term at a Monday breakfast meeting.

Panel members expressed some support for mandatory national standards to ensure utilities reliably produce and transmit power. Outside of state regulations, the industry follows voluntary guidelines.

"We're solidly behind mandatory reliability standards," said David Mohre of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. "We can't wait around for this to happen."

But Lawrence Makovich of Cambridge Energy Research Associates said the details behind those standards could prove vexing to the states. They could give federal regulators the power to condemn private property in the name of stringing up power lines, for instance.

Wise said most Southern states have invested billions of dollars on building or modernizing power plants. With fragile or overwhelmed power systems in other regions, there is talk of spreading the costs of upgrades to the South.

"This is one of our main economic incentives," Wise said. "This threatens that, and it threatens to charge our consumers more."