[BETA] Fortnightly

A unique force of 25 environmental and energy/utility companies have joined together and filed comments on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on open-access electric transmission (Mega-NOPR), and the subsequent draft environmental impact statement (EIS), asking the FERC to mitigate the air-pollution impact of plans to promote wholesale electric competition and open access to utility transmission lines.

The parties urge the FERC to link its open-access policy with an environmental strategy that reduces air pollution at the g

Divest yourself of generating plants or allow retail sales by competitors, and PURPA's mandatory purchase clause in section 210 will no longer hold.

That's the basic deal to be offered to investor-owned electric utilities under the Electric Power Competition Act of 1996 (H.R. 2929), a new bill to amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) introduced by Rep. Edward J.

Nearly every major rate case over the past several years focuses some attention on removing subsidies running between rate classes.

Changing market conditions and newly instituted price-cap regulation give electric utilities a greater disincentive for demand-side management (DSM), according to the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC). While approving a 1996 DSM savings target of 36 million kilowatt-hours (Kwh) for Central Maine Power Co. under the utility's new price-cap plan (see Re Central Maine Power Co., 159 PUR4th 209 (Me.P.U.C.

Robert W. Foy replaced Charles H. "Bud" Stump as chairman of California Water Services Co. Stump, who has been with the company 45 years, will remain on the board. Foy, president and CEO of Pacific Storage Co., has been a CWS director since 1977.

The Gas Research Institute board of directors elected Christine A. Hansen and Stanley C. Horton as new members. Hansen, executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, joins GRI as an at-large director.

The beleaguered Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) has a new assailant (em U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL). Stearns's bipartisan legislation, H.R. 2562, the "Ratepayer Protection Act," proposes repeal of section 210 of PURPA, which requires electric utilities to purchase power at avoided costs.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a settlement agreement governing restrictions on telecommunications ventures by Central Maine Power Co. Under the agreement, the utility must get PUC approval to enter the telecommunications market through a subsidiary except in the Northeast states and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Qu‚bec. In contrast to rules exempting smaller electric ventures from certain filing requirements, the utility must file a project application for all telecommunications ventures, no matter how small.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a 2.43 percent rate increase in the price cap for Central Maine Power Co. (CMP). It also issued findings governing the flow-through to ratepayers of savings earned by restructuring contracts with qualifying cogeneration facilities (QFs).

Performance-based ratemaking (PBR) departs from the cost-of-service standard in setting just and reasonable utility rates, but that departure isn't as easy as it looks.

Up until now, cost-of-service ratemaking has provided relatively stable rates, while enabling utilities to attract enormous amounts of capital. Of late, however, regulators appear to be heeding the argument that changing markets warrant a second look.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has terminated an ongoing rulemaking on stranded-cost recovery by electric utilities in the state. In closing the docket, the PUC cited proposed rules recently issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as evidence of FERC jurisdiction in the matter.