The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has directed Consumers Power Co. to scale back any residential rate subsidies. The order appeared during a review of a proposed settlement in a series of applications to increase rates, revise depreciation methods, and offer discounts to industrial customers.

The PSC added, however, that the company should not try to eliminate the entire subsidy in a single step.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) has authorized three new telecommunications companies to provide local exchange service in competition with existing carriers U S WEST Communications, Inc. and GTE Northwest, Inc.

Citing heightened competition and lower earnings in the state's local exchange telephone market, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has frozen price caps for local exchange carriers (LECs) for most noncompetitive local services, and has suspended the 5-percent "x-factor" services for an intermediate level of competition.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a proposal by Sierra Pacific Power Co. to construct a 345-kilovolt overhead transmission line, but not simply to gain access to low-cost power. Instead, the CPUC appeared to emphasize concern over reliability.

Sierra Pacific, involved in merger plans with The Washington Water Power Co., had cited access to low-cost power from the Bonneville Power Administration as an important reason to build the transmission line.

On May 31, 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued its Statement of Policy in Docket No. PL94-4-000, Pricing Policy for New and Existing Facilities Constructed by Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines.1 In that decision, the FERC sought to provide upfront rate certainty, thereby giving pipelines and shippers a firm basis for making decisions on large-scale investments.

But is that objective realistic?

New England Electric System (NEES) and the majority leaders of both houses of the Rhode Island Legislature have proposed legislation that would restructure the state's electric utility industry. The legislation provides for full recovery of all stranded costs, and phases in open access for all retail customers by January 2001. Although customer choice would come about relatively quickly, rates would not decline much in the near term because a transition charge shields NEES from most of the restructuring risk.

Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (NiMo) has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to rule that a New York state law violates the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) by requiring ratepayers, in effect, to reimburse gas-fired QFs (qualifying facilities) for payments made under a state-imposed, 4.25-percent natural gas import tax.

NiMo says that the tax and the reimbursement mandate will add $7.2 million to the electric bills of its customers in 1996 (em a figure that could climb to $13.5 million by 2006.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has declined jurisdiction in a dispute between Montana Power Co. and Puget Sound Power & Light Co. over a firm purchased-power contract and the seller's obligation to exert "best efforts" to secure necessary firm contractual rights to transmission service to complete the firm power transaction. The FERC prefers that the matter be heard in the federal district court in Montana, where related litigation is already pending.

CSW Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of Central and South West Corp., has become the first company to file at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to become an "exempt telecommunications company" under the telecommunications reform legislation signed into law by President Clinton. Previously, CSW was barred from entering the telecommunications market by the Public Utility Holding Company Act.

Speaking at the American Gas Association's Natural Gas Roundtable in Washington, DC, on February 13, FERC Commissioner William L. Massey called on parties within the natural gas industry to resolve the problem of decontracting (capacity turnback) on natural gas interstate pipelines. Nevertheless, he offered a bit of help from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

For its part, said Massey, the FERC will remain flexible, as shown by its order allowing Natural Gas Pipeline Co.