Anti-trust in the new [De]regulated natural gas industry
This Article explores the evolution of a new regulatory model in the United States. The deregulation movement has produced {open_quotes}a reduction or substantial elimination of regulatory constraints whose scope is unprecedented in modern American history.{close_quotes} The Article uses natural-gas deregulation to consider the extent and nature of the agency oversight still needed in deregulated markets whose performance deeply affects the public interest. Natural-gas deregulation is a good test case for several reasons. One is that gas deregulation is widely viewed as a successful process. The gas example has become a major piece of evidence in the debate over government intervention into economic activity. Trends in natural gas have great symbolic importance because gas distribution has been viewed as an archetypal natural monopoly since the last century. Many now view the natural gas experience as proof that the state can leave even many components of monopolized industries to the market without encouraging abuses of power. Second, large parts of the industry have been completely deregulated. Thus natural gas offers a strong test for the implications of returning realms of activity entirely to the market. Total deregulation should make it easier to spot abuses. Third, institutional as well as cultural reasons (i.e., the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) also has jurisdiction over interstate electricity) ensure that reforms like open-access and unbundling will be applied to other industries, starting with electricity. An imitative intrastate deregulation is rippling through the state-regulated local distribution systems in both industries. Finally, natural gas is a good case study because there is a detailed public record, with clearly articulated differences, for each step of deregulation. Congress laboriously debated the first step, the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA). 323 refs.
- OSTI ID:
- 530581
- Journal Information:
- Energy Law Journal, Vol. 18, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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