Part 3: When Competition Turns to War
William Pentland is a Managing Partner at Brookside Strategies, LLC, an energy and utility management consulting firm based in Darien, Connecticut. Previously, he practiced law in New York City at Paul Weiss Rifkind Garrison & Wharton, LLP, and at Jenner & Block, LLP. Mr. Pentland has written on energy and environmental issues for Forbes, The Nation, and Mother Jones, among other publications. He is the Chair of the Northeast Clean Heat and Power Initiative.
By September 1997, Philadelphia Electric Co. (Peco) had outflanked key opponents and convinced enough hearts and minds (some 70 percent of electric industry stakeholders) to file a proposed partial settlement with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to allow the company to recover costs that might become stranded under a new law (enacted a year before) that had brought a measure of competition to the state's electric utility industry.