An insider recounts the twists and turns that led to a new state law and new rights for the state's electric consumers. On Dec. 3, 1996, Gov. Tom Ridge signed into law Pennsylvania's Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act (em a historic statute that will introduce competition in the retail market among suppliers of electric generation. The act passed primarily because of strong leadership from the governor and others. By signing the act, the governor confounded those who thought Pennsylvania would not support retail electric competition or would do so reluctantly and belatedly. Instead, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to pass a statute giving the power of choice to all retail consumers of electricity.
It is no simple matter to convince a state government to abandon monopoly regulation of electric generation. Restructuring the electric industry is a battle of ideas (em a battle among interests. Those arguing for retail competition must demonstrate that competition will help businesses and families and will prove superior to current regulatory practice.
The first step lies in developing a standard presentation that can explain three different things: 1) the past record of monopoly regulation, 2) the principal issues now involved, and 3) how retail competition would work in practice. Yet, even a good idea like retail electric competition may not survive in the political arena, even though it may claim a host of effective advocates.
Already the act holds changes in store for Pennsylvania's electric industry. By virtue of the act's requirements for pilot projects, by the end of 1997 Pennsylvania may lay claim to the largest competitive retail electric market in the country, with more than 1,000 MW of demand open to direct-access competition.