The seven regional Bell operating companies have formed a coalition (em the Alliance for Competitive Communications (em to spearhead their efforts to reform the nation's telecommunications laws. The group's central goal is to eliminate barriers to competition among local telephone, long-distance, and cable television companies by:

s Encouraging competition in all markets

s Protecting universal service

s Opening markets to all competitors at once

s Ensuring that all competitors in each market are regulated similarly.

EL87-53-003). The new rule comes as part of a case in which Connecticut Light and Power Co.

Over 300 bills were introduced in the first week of the new Congress that convened in January, among them a bill by Sen. J. Bennett Johnston (D-LA) aimed at correcting the government's seriously flawed nuclear waste storage program. Johnston heralded S.

Our industry stands at the threshold of significant change. Competitive forces and significant technological advances beckon the nation's electric utilities to step forward. The electric industry has the opportunity to create a future that provides the benefits of competition to all customer groups. If we don't restructure, someone else will do it for us.

Finding the present industry structure incompatible with effective wholesale or retail competition, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has issued for comment a set of regulatory principles designed to guide the transi-tion to a more competitive electric industry (Docket C94E0952/94086). It said that the transition requires vigorous fair trade safeguards and forward-looking labor/management relations.

Idaho Power Co. (IP) has received approval from the Bureau of Land Management to proceed with its proposed 500-mile, 500,000-volt transmission line between Idaho and Nevada (em the largest transmission project presently under development in the United States. The Bureau based its decision on the environmental impact statement for the Southwest Intertie Project (SIP), and has granted IP a right-of-way across public lands in Idaho, Nevada, and Utah. The line will link 14 utilities in the Southwest and California. IP plans to retain 20 percent of the line's 1,200-megawatt capacity.

UtiliCorp United has announced a growth-oriented strategy that will introduce free-market concepts such as supplier choice and low-cost pricing to customers across the United States.

According to UtiliCorp chairman, president, and CEO Richard C. Green, Jr., the utility plans to use future mergers and partnerships to bring competitively priced energy products and services to consumers nationwide.

The interim consultant's report on the Dominion Resources/Virginia Power (DRI/VP) merger identifies problems with the holding company structure.

DRI/VP claim that the report's corporate structure recommendations conflict substantially with their settlement agreement, and appear to impose unique and extraordinary constraints on corporate governance.

Citing credit uncertainties stemming from impending deregulation, Moody's Investors Service has posted negative ratings outlooks for the U.S. electric, telecommunications, and natural gas industries (with the exception of the pipeline segment). Moody's acknowledges, however, that the impact of deregulation will depend on market maturity, relative cost structure, degree of integration, and regulatory flexibility.