TEXAS CLARIFICATION. Thank you for the article, "From Statehouse to Your House: The Electric Competition Debate in Texas" (May 15, 1998 issue).

Please allow me to correct one point in that article, however. In discussing variations of distribution costs among utilities serving "deep East" Texas (a region of the state), the author believed me to be referring to Deep East Texas Electric Coop (a utility). Deep East Texas Electric Coop has one of the lowest distribution costs in the state; other neighboring coops in "deep East" Texas are somewhat higher.

UTC, The Telecommunications Association, appointed William R. Moroney its executive director. He replaces Mike Meehan, UTC's executive director since 1988. Moroney previously served as president and CEO of the Multimedia Telecommunications Association.

LG&E Energy Corp. named Frederick James Newton III senior vice president of human resources and administration. Previously, Newton was senior vice president of human resources for Woolworth Corp.'s Champs Sports Division.

Commissioner Heather F. Hunt has resigned from the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

THE LAST FEW TIMES I'VE HIT THE ROAD FOR A INDUSTRY conference or speaking engagement, someone invariably has come up to tell me how my picture on this page seems to be getting younger. OK, I confess. Like many other columnists, I've probably carried on too long with the same old photo.

WHY IS ELECTRICITY COMPETITION NOT WORKING? The principal reason is the failure of Order 888 to accommodate the economic and technological constraints of wholesale power markets.

Soon after Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 1992, to give authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to compel electric utilities under its jurisdiction to wheel power for others, the FERC correctly recognized that piecemeal wheeling orders wouldn't work well without a tariff. A tariff would make the service quickly available to the user without the need for time-consuming negotiation.

A FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION UNDER CALIFORNIA's NEW electricity framework is, "Where have all the suppliers gone?" At a recent industry symposium, one large customer noted during negotiations with competitive energy suppliers that all five finalists had disappeared. The experience at my firm has been so draconian, but I have found that it is not unusual for half of the finalists to disappear in the bargaining. And when I say "disappear," I'm talking about something more extreme than simply reaching an irreconcilable difference.

WHEN 42 PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSIONERS HUDDLED in private recently at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver to discuss their roles come 2003, they came to a striking conclusion: Someday they might be out of business. Some said it would take five years, others said as long as 10.

"There was quite a bit of discussion and interest in commissions actually formulating what they call an 'exit plan,' by which they meant, in a kind of systematic way ... being prepared to wind back on their regulatory oversight," says Douglas N.

STARTING A NEW JOB CAN RESULT IN A FEW SURPRISES,but some new executives at electric utilities may be getting more than their share.

According to the Global Energy Utilities Practice, a Spencer Stuart study, electric utilities have been hiring droves of executives from outside industries (see Figure 1) to fill vice-presidential positions and above - only to lose their new recruits, often within a year.

By turning to other industries for new hires, utilities seek a shortcut on the road to competition, according to the study.

THERE'S A STORM coming. This tempest threatens to inundate management and shred shareholder value. It can't be avoided, only survived. Only those who batten down the hatches will survive.

The issue is nuclear plant decommissioning. While many would prefer to comfort themselves that the dark clouds on the horizon are still far off, trouble may come sooner than they think.

Of the 106 operating plants in the United States, more than half were licensed before 1978. Of the plants that have shut down so far, not one has reached the expiration of its license period.

POLITICS WON OVER PURPOSE AS AN EARLY VOTE on a nuclear waste bill in the U.S. Senate was itself laid to waste, apparently victim of a contested Senate seat in the state where spent fuel would be stored.

The June 2 vote would have limited debate on H.R. 1270. By getting a vote count, the leanings of senators on the bill would have been tested. And the way would have been paved for Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to schedule a second, more formal vote on the measure.

TELEPHONE BILLING PRACTICES. Citing the filed-rate doctrine, which bars deviation from published tariffs, a federal appeals court affirmed the dismissal of two class action suits against AT&T Corp. that sought damages for alleged fraud. The suite arose from AT&T's failure to disclose to its residential long-distance telecommunications customers its practice of rounding charges up to the higher full minute.