(May 2007) The board of directors of Maine & Maritimes Corp. selected Brent M. Boyles to become the organization’s next president and CEO. Consumers Energy has named Bruce Rasher manager of renewable energy. FPL Group Inc. announced that Oliver D. Kingsley Jr. has been elected to the company’s board of directors. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. named Des Bell as utility chief of staff and vice president.
Among a host of arguments for and against RD is the question of upside for consumers.
Retaining adequate earnings is the driving motive for revenue decoupling (RD) among gas utilities, while conservationists view RD as necessary for the removal of resistance to energy efficiency. But the benefits of RD to consumers are less certain.
(January 2007) PNGC Power promoted Tom Haymaker to vice president of power supply. Calpine Corp. announced that Larry B. Leverett joined the company as senior vice president, gas trading. ITC Holdings Corp. announced that William J. Museler has been appointed to its board of directors. Sierra Pacific Resources announced that William D. Rogers has been named to the new position of vice president, finance and risk, and Corporate Treasurer. And others...
State PUCs should recognize a refundable regulatory liability for past charges to ratepayers.
The Financial Accounting Standards Board SFAS No.143 identifies an immediate need for state public utilities commissions to recognize a refundable regulatory liability for past charges to ratepayers for non-legal asset retirement costs. Although these prior charges resulted in billions of dollars of regulatory liabilities on utilities' generally accepted accounting principles financial statements, they are almost invisible on the regulatory financial statements of the utilities. Unless the state PUCs specifically recognize the liabilities, the utilities will have the opportunity to institute a rate-base "cleansing" by transferring ratepayer-fronted money into income.
Gas utilities and state commissions must work together to help preserve rates of return, encourage conservation, and lower customers’ bills.
An economic perspective on long-term contracting for gas pipeline service.
The conclusions made by the NPC gas study raise more questions than they answer.
People for December 2003.
People for November 15, 2003
Commission Watch
How far will FERC go to restore market confidence?
Despite keen industry interest in FERC's proposed "rules of the road," aka new codes of conduct, it appears the industry will have to wait. FERC recently granted extensions for filings, and the commission will not gather all reply comments until Sept. 18. Filings so far point to differences over the proposals, especially in time frames for reporting bad behavior, appropriate monetary penalties, and defining to whom the rules apply.