What FERC might learn from Thomas Piketty and his best-selling book on wealth and income.
David E. Pomper is a partner at Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP. He represents state commissions, consumer advocates, and municipal, cooperative, and investor-owned utilities, and is a lead litigator for the complainants in the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s recently issued Opinion No. 531, concerning ISO New England and its authorized region-wide rate of return for wholesale transmission service. However, the views expressed in this article by Mr. Pomper are his alone. He can be reached at david.pomper@spiegelmcd.com. In addition to welcoming readers’ comments, he welcomes offers of any non-conflicting investment that can return 10.57% to 11.74%, as was authorized in the referenced FERC decision, while bearing as little risk as non-bypassable electric transmission service sold under formula rates.
To Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century,1 "attention must be paid."2 The Parisian economist's tome has become a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic, for good reason: Piketty has married incisive theorizing to painstaking data-crunching, to produce a lucid summary of capitalism's past and likely future.