Law & Lawyers

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.

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).

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.

The Plague ... of Price Controls

The world goeth fast from bad to worse.

Many public voices today want the government to simply mandate lower energy prices. It is this kind of temper-tantrum-as-policy that makes the Middle Ages seem so, well, medieval, and reminds us why we got rid of kings in the first place.

News Digest (July 15, 2001)

Compiled June 21, 2001 by Bruce W. Radford, editor-in-chief, from contributions as noted from Carl J. Levesque, associate editor, and Phillip S. Cross and Lori A. Burkhart, contributing legal editors.

Urban Myth: Bush to Help Houston

One of the primary objectives of the Bush administration's energy policy is to increase energy supplies, including the supply of electric generating capacity. Opponents of the Bush plan argue that his plan is nothing more than a scheme to fill the coffers of "Texas"-based companies who supported Bush's election.

People for July 15, 2001

Gordon van Welie recently was appointed president and CEO of ISO New England Inc. CMS Energy Corp. elected David G. Mengebier as senior vice president of governmental and public affairs. PSEG Global recently named George P. Schaefer as senior vice president of financing and treasurer. FERC announced the appointment of its newest commissioners. And others...

Izzbee, Izz it?

The Energy Industry Standards Board doesn't exist yet, but it's got regulators talking.

More than two years ago, I suggested in this column that regional independent system operators would likely supplant the regional reliability councils as the caretakers of electric system reliability. And that's still possible—if the ISOs move quickly to RTO status, and if the RTOs get cracking right away on adopting uniform business rules. But the FERC may get tired waiting for that to happen.

X Marks the Spot: How U.K. Utilities Have Fared Under Performance-Based Ratemaking

Returns for U.K. RECs have proven resilient, despite price cuts, efficiency targets, and the windfall profit tax.

Performance-based ratemaking in the United Kingdom is now entering its third "generation," or regulatory period. Due to the sharpened incentives of PBR relative to cost-of-service regulation, the UK has seen a substantial improvement in electricity distribution productivity, annual gains of 3.5 percent. The price cap form of PBR, incorporating an X factor, is being adopted in an increasing number of regions, from the Netherlands to Canada.