Perspective

 

FERC's call for regional PUCs will force state regulators to declare their allegiance.

How will regulators re-engineer restructuring? That was the theme of the seventh annual convention of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Commissioners (MARUC). But while the theme may have been the re-engineering of restructuring, other regulators felt more inclined to discuss the "re-regulating of restructuring."

In fact, FERC's call for regional public utility commissions (PUCs) to be formed as part of its Standard Market Design has deeply divided state PUCs, and this could be a problem for the future of FERC's initiatives.

Although power increasingly has shifted to the FERC, none deny that state regulators can delay or even cripple the federal actions by a combination of pressure on their jurisdictional companies and with political lobbying in Congress with state delegations.

One person who has strongly voiced his support for regional PUCs is MARUC's newly elected president, District of Columbia Public Service Commission chairman Angel Cartagena. He has said, "As states increasingly consider entering into regional arrangements to address their respective energy needs, I am hoping that the MARUC member states will be pioneers. As most of our states belong to PJM, the development of a regional regulatory body to address common energy issues in the MARUC territory makes more sense every day."