Fortnightly Magazine - September 2006

The District of Columbia Public Service Commission successfully has used two little known provisions in the Federal Power Act (FPA) to prevent an aging generating plant crucial to the national capital region’s reliability from being abruptly shut down by Virginia’s environmental regulators. In the end, the immediate threat to the region’s reliability was obviated while the environmental concerns associated with the plant were not ignored. The action resulted in a model for how federal energy regulators and environmental regulators can address similar problems in the future.

Enron has provided lessons for both corporations generally as well as the energy industry specifically. How can energy market participants effectively manage the risks inherent in complying with those regulatory reforms?

(September 2006) Consistent performance over time is the Holy Grail of corporate management, and a focus of many of the executives who made this year’s Fortnightly 40 ranking. Who returned to the list, and who fell off? And more important, why?

By almost any measure, the nation is running short of transmission, and the existing volume of investment cannot long continue to reliably accommodate retail-load growth and larger wholesale volumes. Factors like environmental opposition also have caused declines and delays in transmission investment, but it seems clear that financial transmission rights and regulated returns have not sufficed to induce the necessary construction. The authors propose a new model to reward investors who lower congestion costs.