I confess. I haven't yet read the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Order 888.

The movement to introduce competition in the electricity industry comes at a time when many utilities are already ailing or underperforming. In fact, since 1990, half of U.S. investor-owned utilities (IOUs) have failed to consistently grow their dividends, or have cut or eliminated them altogether. According to a new study by Resource Data International, U.S. Electric Utility Industry Merger and Acquisitions, 1996, the current trend toward mergers and acquisitions is fueled by a desire to improve shareholder returns.

Dwindling economic competitiveness has plagued the nuclear power industry for

some years. In the industry's early years, some reactors were completed for less than $100 million. Experience gained overseas (often in projects with American partners) provides sobering evidence that nuclear reactors can still be built at low cost in short periods of time.

U.S. utilities find

a wealth of opportunity

down under.Australia.

It drew more than $7 billion in investment from U.S. electric utility subsidiaries at the end of 1995. Ongoing privatization will likely draw billions more.

Five electric distribution companies and a generating company have been sold in Australia's southeastern State of Victoria, and four more generating companies are expected to go on the block.

Probably the quickest way to get punched out in Toronto is to call Canada the 51st state. But let's face it,

the border is getting murky, like power markets.

Aren't we supposed to be importing power from Canada? Didn't the NIMBY syndrome kill off baseload generation construction, making our provincial neighbors the source of our power and raw materials? Then why are companies like Northeast Utilities suddenly seeking permission to export power to the provinces?

First it deregulated generation.

Then distribution (no more exclusive franchise).

Only now is New Zealand turning

to the wholesale market.

A decade ago New Zealand's economy was suffering from prolonged stagnation. The country relied too much on the public sector.

First came the Pool, with its faults and virtues.

Now comes a wave of troubling takeovers.

What happens when retail supply opens up?

Much of the pressure to reform the electricity supply industry in the United States assumes that the United Kingdom's electricity experiment offers a proven model.

On behalf of our members, we want to express our continuing appreciation for the leadership you and your colleagues are showing in seeking enactment of S. 1317, a bill to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, while assuring appropriate consumer and investor protection. As you know, the '35 Act imposes duplicative, unnecessary, and burdensome requirements that are outdated and do not reflect current circumstances in the gas and electric utility industry.

Tennessee law permitting new competition in the local-exchange telephone market clearly protects the state's small incumbent local carriers (LECs with fewer than 100,000 access lines) from market entry by competitive carriers, according to the state public service commission (PSC), unless the incumbent voluntarily elects competition either by executing an interconnection agreement with a local competitor, or by applying for a certificate to provide service outside its franchised service area.

Separate certificate hearings for new market entrants would be inefficient and w

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has authorized Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc. to offer aggregation services free of charge to marketers, brokers, producers, or customer groups responsible for delivery of gas supplies to its city gates on behalf of end-users. (But Columbia will seek approval of a service charge in its next rate case.)

The PUC says the new service allows aggregation of customers by agents for scheduling and nominating gas, banking and balancing, and other distribution functions. Re Columbia Gas of Ohio, Inc., Case No. 96-159-GA-ATA, Mar.