The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) has called for additional research on Wisconsin dairy farms to determine what impact electromagnetic fields (EMF), direct current, and ground currents may have on dairy cattle. According to the PSC, Wisconsin farmers have been noticing behavioral changes in their milking herds for some years now (em changes that affect milk production.
Utility regulators in Minnesota and Nevada have opened dockets on electric utility restructuring, citing (Minnesota) the Energy Policy Act of 1992 as having lifted barriers to wholesale competition, and seeking (Nevada) recommendations on alternative ratemaking.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) said it would view open competition as "one part of a continuum of possible change," from traditional vertical integration to full deregulation.
Texas Gov. George Bush on May 26 signed into law a comprehensive bill, H.B. 2128, that makes sweeping changes in the way the state regulates telecommunications. The bill allows competitors to provide local exchange services by obtaining a certificate of operating authority (COA) or to resell local services through a service-provider certificate of operating authority. The COA is designed for facilities-based local exchange, and requires competitors to serve customers within a 27-square-mile area within 30 days of customer request.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities has decided to phase-out existing demand-side management (DSM) incentives for the state's natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs). It said that any claims by LDCs for future recovery of lost margins and incentives will be examined in light of changes in the gas industry and the DSM marketplace. It added that the LDCs should propose a phase-out of their lost margin and DSM incentive programs in conjunction with proposals for incentive-based ratemaking or in their future DSM cases. Re Boston Gas Co., D.P.U. 94-15, Apr.
Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) and Merck & Co. have announced a trade of emission reduction credits as part of a broad initiative to develop a market-based response to combat the ozone nonattainment problems in the Northeast. PSE&G will sell a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 75 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution reductions, called "surplus discrete emission reductions" (SDRs), to Merck in 1995. Merck will use the SDRs to comply with environmental requirements at two industrial boilers.
The California Public Utilities Commission has issued a "positive" performance rating for the first year of a two-year, experimental performance-based rate program for San Diego Gas and Electric Co.'s gas procurement and electric generation and dispatch activities. It extended the plan another year, to facilitate the second year's annual review, and said it expects the plan to stay in place "well into the third year" of the trial. Re San Diego Gas & Elec. Co., Decision 95-04-051, Applica. 92-10-017, Apr. 26, 1995 (Cal.P.U.C.).
The Illinois legislature has established a committee to study reforming the electric utility industry in Illinois through competition. The Joint Committee on Electric Utility Reform will be guided by Energy Choice 2000, a proposal that would allow utilities to compete for large customers as of 2000. The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) would have the power to let residential and small commercial customers to select their supplier by 2006. The proposal was developed by the Coalition for Consumer Choice, which comprises various Illinois businesses as well as Illinois Power.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court has overturned a decision by state regulators that would have allowed Commonwealth Electric Co.
argues that the Iowa price is more than twice what federal law imposes under a market-based rate. MPS and the three other investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in Iowa had asked the state legislature earlier this year to make the Iowa law conform to federal law, but the bill was not passed.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has upheld a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission policy allowing utilities to recover costs to switch from cash to accrualaccounting for post-retirement benefits other than pensions (PBOP) under SFAS 106.
