electric industry restructuring.
That's what Matthew Freedman, energy policy analyst, announced at a Public Citizen briefing on the advocacy group's Power for the People, a "public interest blueprint" for the new electric market.
"Competition in the electric power industry could either usher in a new era of cleaner, more affordable energy services or prove to be the biggest customer shakedown of our time," the report reads. Possible outcomes of restructuring, the report notes, include:
s Higher bills for small business and residential consumers and discounted large-consumer rates
s Elimination of energy-efficiency programs
s Unregulated monopoly utilities stifling competition and increasing profits
s Bail outs of inefficient, high-cost utilities, which will reward shareholders for bad business decisions.
To prevent those outcomes and to ensure that customers receive benefits, the blueprint proposes:
s Withholding recovery of costs for uneconomical utility assets, except in special circumstances
s Breaking up vertically integrated monopolies by divesting assets