L.A. Loves a Loophole
There's no getting around it—price caps aren't for everyone.
A letter to Michael J. Manning at Fulbright & Jaworski, L.L.P. from FERC General Counsel Kevin P. Madden.
Perspective
Reading the T&D Leaves: How Interest Rates Influence Prices for Wires Services
The strong correlation holds lessons for power marketers, who naturally will build large short positions on delivery service.
The analysis shows how one could expect allowed return on equity to change as interest rates change and the resulting financial effect on endusers. The positive side of this thought process is that a continuing low interest rate environment should attenuate the effect of high commodity prices for retail users of electricity.
The Bush Plan and Beyond: Toward a More Rational U.S. Energy Policy
Any plan to reduce energy consumption should rest on economics — not ideology.
In addition to increasing total U.S. gas consumption to 34.7 Tcf in 2020, it would take another 11.3 Tcf/year to convert existing coal-fired U.S. steam-electric capacity to gas-fired combined-cycle units operating at the same load factor. Clearly, that is a tall order. Nevertheless, we must face the fact that there are few alternatives other than backing out coal-fired generation that would reduce global carbon emissions to a total of less than 870-990 million metric tons between 1991 and 2100. The logical endpoint will be electrification of most stationary energy uses with high-tech renewable or essentially inexhaustible energy sources, and the use of hydrogen from non-fossil-fuel sources as the dominant transportation fuel.
The Song of Competition: Still as Sweet Without Cheap Gas?
More ruminations on the "stranded ratepayer."
Two readers — President and CEO of El Paso Electric James Haines and Richard D. Cudahy, Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Chicago — respond to a letter written about Cudahy's article “The Stranded Ratepayer” (March 15, 2001, p. 26).
How Soon They Forget
The case against re-regulating the electric industry.
Restructuring has already created a badly needed new atmosphere for the industry. There is an infusion of new thinking and vigor that portends bringing the industry's performance up to the standards of the rest of the economy. We have no reason to believe that regulation would fare better in the future than in the past. Let's go forward with electric restructuring. Unfortunately, however, it's turning out to be more difficult than we expected.
Bush Energy Plan Takes the High Road
News Analysis
President Bush's national energy policy offers no relief for summer, giving Democrats a bone to pick.
Alternative Energy: Synthetic Fuels Make a Move
The economics — and the environment — are now right to turn coal and coke into gas.
With rising power and gas prices, coal gasification in back in fashion, along with new approaches to cogeneration and combined heat and power.
IPOs for Rural Co-ops: Why and How to Set Up the Deal
Equity is the essential currency.
$15 billion in patronage capital lies fallow, locked up in member-owned cooperatives with no way to participate in equity markets. That’s how the S&Ls looked 20 years ago, before they saw the light.
Saving California with Distributed Generation
A crash program to use small, standby diesel generators to keep the lights on.
Fire up all the small, diesel-powered emergency generating units already installed on site in California. It would erase the power shortage, but it won’t happen without changing the way we think about unit dispatch.
Spread the Job of Cleaning the Air
The California Crisis: Another Take
We’ve been dumping the cost on utilities, but ground is shifting.