An open letter to the President on electricity restructuring

Journal Article · Sat Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Electricity Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6190(97)80345-4· OSTI ID:518437

Fox-Penner, P

As a former attorney general, governor and now as President, you`ve had plenty of experience with electric utility regulatory issues. You know that electricity rates and reliability are sure fire political issues whenever they change by much - up or down. It may be worth remembering that the last two-term Democratic President made electric utility reform one of the issues he rode to victory, establishing interstate regulation of utilities and creating public power as a competitive national force. I`ll skip the homilies and get straight to the point. I don`t see an advantage for you in proposing legislation early this session. The states are still experimenting, and are almost overwhelmed by change already. Interstate tensions and other factors ultimately will necessitate federal changes, but a better move now would be to send a strong statement of policy to the Hill - not legislative language. Like telecommunications, health care, and many other industries, the power industry is engulfed in a chaotic season of change. Deregulation of bulk power sales - utilities selling to other utilities - began under your predecessor and has been greatly expanded by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under your watch. This idea is now widely accepted, and the main ongoing problems seem to involve setting the rules for governing and operating the transmission grid and monitoring market power. This legislation will as much raise questions about federalism and the best way to change national policy as it does questions of electricity prices. As we are seeing in health care, great changes can sometimes be triggered merely by a national debate and action in some of the states. In the power industry competition is already here at the wholesale level, and at least partly present at the retail level, and prices have already fallen considerably. Pushing the states too far too fast could stall or reverse progress, and many states clearly want no part of a federal mandate.

• OSTI ID: 518437
• Journal Information: Electricity Journal, Journal Name: Electricity Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 10; ISSN ELEJE4; ISSN 1040-6190
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
DEREGULATION
ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY