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Fortnightly Magazine - January 15 1996

Trends

Rail Mergers

and Market Power

Coal, railroads, and electric utilities have been closely intertwined for most of the 20th century. Today, coal fuels over 56 percent of the nation's electricity. Coal and rail transportation together cost electric utilities over $23 billion annually.

Over the past 15 years, a combination of events (em including productivity gains, technological innovations, and consolidation (em has resulted in a very competitive fuel and transportation market.

Byline: 
Kent Knutson
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People

Susan F. Tierney, former assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, has joined The Economics Resource Group, Inc. as a managing consultant.

UGI Corp. has hired William D. Katz as v.p.-corporate development. He succeeds R. Paul Grady, now v.p.-sales/

operations of UGI's AmeriGas Propane subsidiary.

Stephen D. Chesebro', Tenneco Energy's CEO, was promoted to chairman. Edward J. Casey, Jr. joins the company as president and COO.

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Frontlines

Deregulate in haste; repent at leisure. That's what they say about love, marriage, and ratemaking. Yet, in the utility business the regrets are pouring in (em sometimes from the same people who sent out the invitations.

For example, at the end of November, a week before I put fingers to keyboard, the FERC was shocked to discover that the proposed Altus merger between The Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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Price-Based Regulation: The Elegance of Simplicity

When economic reformers in the old Soviet Union searched for a metaphor to describe their move to a market economy, they a spoke of a horseman jumping a ditch. The true test of a strategy was that it carried you to the other side. It was no time for half-measures.

Electric utility regulators face a similar challenge.

Byline: 
William D. Steinmeier
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Innovative Rates: Four Customers, Four Solutions

Flexible rate options can remain cost-based, even in a buyer's market, and yet

allow choice between price, reliability, and scheduling.

Customers with a choice are demanding, and getting, lower electric bills. These customers generally include municipals and large industrials. Municipals, as wholesalers, gained access to alternative suppliers via the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

Byline: 
C. Douglas Bowman
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Customer Forum

Every year, Public Utilities Fortnightly holds a forum electric utility executives. And another for gas utility executives. And another for state regulators.

This year we decided to ask utility customers what they think.DuPont, the country's number one chemical company, operates in 70 countries. It is, perhaps, best known for its Teflon products, but it also makes refrigerants, pigments, fibers (Lycra), nylon resins, electronics, medical products, and many other products.

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