Antitrust is not another form of regulation. Antitrust
is an alternative to regulation
and, where feasible, a better alternative.
(em Stephen G. Breyer,
"Antitrust, Deregulation, and the Newly Liberated Marketplace,"
75 Calif. Law Rev. 1005, 1007 (1987).
By Robert J. Michaels
The Justice Department's Guidelines don't tell us very much about
today's (or tomorrow's) electric market.
However many electric utilities remain after this merger wave, competition will be forever changed.
Monopoly rents? Not in the short run. The real enemy is a price war, fueled by indifference to stranded costs. And when that happens, antitrust laws won't offer much help.Competition has formally begun in the electric service industry. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued Order 888, giving generators access to wholesale loads throughout the nation.
Whether you're a utility commissioner in Wyoming or Georgia, a v.p. for a leading marketer, or a commission division director in New Jersey, you share a common activity: learning by the seat of your pants about deregulating gas markets. In this gas forum, PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY highlights developments across the nation.
Light-handed or Light-headed?Customers didn't buy power on lay-away. So why should the CPUC exact interest?
In a recent dream, the Governor of California called to ask if I would accept an appointment to serve on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). Of course I thanked him and said I was extremely flattered by the offer. However, I inquired, didn't he have an opening on the parole board or air resources board? You see, I know entirely too much about the thankless work of the CPUC.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has rejected a request by Central Maine Power Co. to suspend a proceeding to develop an interim competition transition charge.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has opened a docket to examine regulatory reform of the state's natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs), responding to a new state law (Amended Substitute House Bill 476) signed June 18 by Ohio Gov. George Voinovich. It directed its staff and interested parties to develop ideas for alternative regulatory plans and for LDCs to enter the "commodity sales" market.
The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has rejected a proposal by Gulf Power Co. to offer negotiated contracts to large, "at-risk" customers that would otherwise leave the system to find power from another source.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission has reaffirmed its "recommendation" (issued April 11 in a rate case order) that Toledo Edison Co. and Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (subsidiaries of Centerior Energy Corp.) should write down $1.25 billion in assets over the next five years to avoid the danger of even greater commission-mandated cost disallowances.
The PUC rejected arguments that it should have ordered the write-down directly.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has opened a docket to investigate how and to what extent it should regulate "energy-related products and services other than electric service" offered by Central Maine Power Co.
In lieu of price regulation, the utility had proposed setting prices to cover its marginal cost for
specific offerings, including: 1) inspection and maintenance of customer-owned substation facilities, 2) energy control systems and services, 3) construction of customer-owned pole lines, and 4) maintenance and repair of customer-owned lighting equ