Frontlines
Prices Hit a Pique
California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?
What did they know and when did they know it? That's what California consumers are asking utility regulators and system operators, now that the heat of summer has made a shambles of the state's vision of electricity competition.
The Federal Trade Commission likely will regulate those business-to-business Web portals, but how much?
Electric utility executives may be a step behind the Internet revolution, but in one key respect they may have an advantage over anyone else building an e-commerce Web portal for business-to-business (B2B) procurement.
Utility executives don't fear government regulation. They're already caught in the net.
1 See, e.g., Susan S. DeSanti, "The Evolution of Electronic B2B Marketplaces," remarks before the FTC Public Workshop, (June 29, 2000).
2 "Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors" ("Collaboration Guidelines"), 4 Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH) ¦13,160, (April 7, 2000).
3 See Collaboration Guidelines ¤¤ 3.31(a) and Appendix, Example 4.
4 Id.
5 Id.; but see Appendix, Example 9.
6 Id. ¤ 4.1.
7 See generally Collaboration Guidelines, ¤ 3.34(d).
8 Collaboration Guidelines ¤¤1.2, 3.2.
News Digest
Frontlines
Price Cap Follies
A look at the various approaches regulators have taken to pricing energy in competitive markets, and how some are rethinking those plans.
For deregulation to work, consumers must see the real price-- including all utility costs.
Off Peak
July 15, 2000
Gas Price Pains
By Regina R. Johnson
Didn't Congress fix this problem a decade ago?
Then: