Frontlines & Op-Ed

FERC Throws Down The Gauntlet

The legal battle of the century is ready to begin.

A FERC order late last year — that AEP must join the PJM grid to meet conditions of its 2000 merger with Central and Southwest Corp. — was tantamount to a declaration of war with state regulators. At the center of the issue is whether FERC has authority to pre-empt the states on development of regional transmission organizations.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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LNG: The Next Prize?

CERA's Daniel Yergin says global gas markets will define the new century, just as oil did for the last 100 years.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates Chairman Daniel Yergin captures in a few words oil's extraordinary past. Might those words one day describe the next 100 years of natural gas development? Talking with Yergin in early November, I found a man convinced that the forces that shaped a global oil market are at work in shaping a global market for natural gas. I'll be sharing some of his words with you.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Time After Time

Regulators are starting to show signs of strain over the restructuring debate.

Up to now, many in the industry thought everybody but the regulators had tired of the constant back-and-forth over regional market issues such as standard market design. This is not to say that state regulators have been able to find any common resolution.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Letters to the Editor

Two letters, one correction

Jonathan Jacobs, Managing Consultant at PA Consulting Group, responds to a letter to the editor in the Oct. 1, 2003 issue from Lewis Evans and Kevin Counsell. And former FERC commissioner Matthew Holden Jr. disagrees with John Sillin's commentary in "The Blackout of 2003: Why We Fell Into the Heart of Darkness" in the Sept. 15, 2003 issue.
Byline: 

PUF

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AEP's Gutsy Gambit

It would join an RTO but dictate the terms — a dangerous game that has the industry talking.

When I talked a few months ago with AEP President and CEO Linn Draper Jr., he discussed how his company would have joined the PJM RTO in March were it not for the backlash he was getting from certain state regulators.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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Painted Into a Corner

Wall Street wants utilities to return to basics, but the CEOs worry it won't be enough.

One can certainly understand why so many utility chiefs steered their companies back to basics over the past two years. But a key problem remains. As the economy improves, utilities recognize they must soon return to the front lines and face the music. How do they generate enough growth to keep investors from being lured away by higher-yielding financial instruments — all while remaining to appear as stable, low-risk investments?
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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 Mistake by the Lake

The blackout could doom deregulation, but why treat reliability and reform as either-or?

The Great Blackout of August 2003 may well spell the doom of deregulation as we know it for the electric industry. Yet I believe that reliability and a move to markets need not be mutually exclusive. Rather, they must march forward together, in step, for either to succeed.
Byline: 

Bruce W. Radford

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Frontlines

The Northeast Blackout goes political.

Frontlines

The Northeast Blackout goes political.

Nearly a year ago, cover story announced the rise of the chief risk officer (CRO). "Utility senior management is becoming positively enamored with the office of the CRO," we said. "Fully 40 percent of America's CROs work for utilities and energy companies."

Byline: 
Richard Stavros
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Letters to the Editor

Letters from Andrew Paterson, a principal at Environmental Business International, and Professor Sheldon Landsberger, Director, Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab, University of Texas at Austin.
Byline: 

PUF

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Aquila: Better Off Dead?

Bankruptcy may not be better for ratepayers.

In an ironic twist, Aquila now looks more and more like a traditional, stick-to-the-knitting electric utility. There is no longer any unregulated operation to worry about.
Byline: 

Richard Stavros

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