92 pages, 20 articles, 24 authors including Flaherty, Jensen, Patterson, Hyman, etc., columns by EPRI and Nat. Governors Assn.
To whet your appetite for the June issue of PUF, here are three excerpts from my interview with Jim Fama, on his last day before retiring as EEI's vice pres. for transmission and distribution. An amazing career.
"Disney World was one of our partial requirements customers [at Florida Power Corp.].
One of my very first trips over there, I went to Epcot for a contract negotiation. Every one of their guys had a Disney 'My name is Bob' badge.
We got into this dispute over what we were going to charge Disney World. This vice president comes into the room with a box. He's got Disney World hats with Mickey Mouse holding a lightning bolt.
He said: 'If you guys can settle this, everybody gets a hat. And we're going to give you a pass to visit Disney World with your family. If you don't settle, we're not giving you anything.'
He comes and puts the box on the table with the hats. We did settle. I still have the hat."
"Harvey Spiegel was general counsel of the Bonneville Power Administration. Eventually Harvey moved me up, promoting me to run this section.
Harvey was a great manager of people. When you got promoted he took you fly-fishing on the Deschutes River, which was the most boring thing in the world. I never caught a fish."
"When I went to LeBoeuf Lamb, the guy that headed up the D.C. office said, as a backhanded compliment:
'Jim, when we hired you we thought, you being a general counsel for a utility, that you probably lost your touch and really didn't know how to do anything anymore.'
He said, 'What a nice surprise that you could really do things.'"
Need a copy of the must-read June issue? Send an e-mail to Joe Paparello, PUF's Publisher, paparello@fortnightly.com. Costs just $24, about what you pay for 200 kilowatt-hours.
Steve Mitnick, Editor-in-Chief, Public Utilities Fortnightly
E-mail me: mitnick@fortnightly.com
