A formal methodology for developing ring-fencing arrangements and setting conditions.
Howard Lubow (hlubow@overlandconsulting.com) is president and Ryan Pfaff (rpfaff@overlandconsulting.com) is a senior manager at Overland Consulting in Leawood, Kansas. J. Robert Malko is a professor of corporate finance at Utah State University. Leslie Moore Romine is chief staff counsel for the Maryland Public Service Commission.
For decades, state regulatory commissions have been searching for techniques to help adequately safeguard public utilities from the increasingly diversified activities of utility holding companies. One of the authors of this article wrote the following over 30 years ago: “The question is not should we have diversification. We have it. It is pervasive throughout the industry. It has been here for a long time and it is going to be here for the foreseeable future. The question is not whether, but rather, how does a regulatory commission deal with the problems posed by diversification?”1