Second Time Around
Russell Feingold is a vice president and leader of the Rate & Regulatory practice at Black & Veatch Management Consulting. He is an experienced management consultant specializing in the energy and utility industries, and has advised clients on costing and pricing, competitive market analysis, rate case and regulatory planning and policy development, innovative ratemaking concepts, performance-based regulation, gas supply planning and procurement, strategic business planning, merger and acquisitions, regulatory due diligence, corporate restructuring, new product and service development, load research and demand forecasting studies, and market planning.
John D. Taylor is a utility regulatory, operations, and transaction expert with deep experience across the energy industry. He has over fifteen years of experience with cost of service studies for electric and gas utilities, developing residential/commercial rates, analyzing midstream transportation and storage capacity resources, and assessing the relationship between price signals and the adoption of distributed generation assets. He filed testimony as an expert witness on class cost of service studies, return on equity, affiliate transactions, and on statistical analysis during audit testing in U.S. and Canada.
The personal and societal impacts of the current coronavirus pandemic are unprecedented. Economically, we are experiencing new and unanticipated challenges from both a business and individual perspective.
These challenges are quickly beginning to impact the regulatory and ratemaking activities of gas distribution utilities in the United States and will require the creation of well-conceived and meaningful solutions and regulatory policies.
Interestingly, even though parallels are being drawn, the impacts on gas distribution utilities today are in many respects different from those that were experienced during and after the 2008-2009 Great Recession.
While the 2008-2009 Great Recession was a time of uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the ability of the labor force to be productive and the ability of businesses to continue to operate - creating a unique set of circumstances that came upon us quickly.
Clearly, the impact on our economic and social conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has occurred more rapidly and dramatically than during the 2008-2009 period. Over the last few months, we have experienced much broader and encompassing social impacts, with "stay at home" restrictions put into place by states creating new challenges on how business can continue to be conducted effectively, and on how we manage our daily lives.