Some in California say they will pay double - once to the ISO, then again to the IOU.

What if power prices fall but the savings get eaten up by higher transmission rates? Let's say we unbundle the wires, but end up creating just another layer of costs? We pay the independent system operator (ISO) to run the grid, but the investor-owned utility (IOU) still owns the wires. It has its own costs to recover. So now we pay two bills, right?

The issue is troublesome for California's electric utilities and a quagmire for Pacific Gas & Electric Co. In a new tariff it filed on Nov.

Reliant Energy's Don D. Jordan retired from his position as chairman of the board Dec. 31. R. Steve Letbetter, who had served as president and chief executive officer since June, has been named chairman, president and chief executive officer. Jordan served as CEO of Reliant Energy and its predecessor companies for 23 years, one of the longest tenures as a chief executive among major companies in Houston and in the energy business.

Matthew C. Cordaro has been appointed president and CEO of the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator.

Agency moves ahead despite ruling that Clean Air Act is unconstitutional.

By granting petitions filed by four Northeastern states seeking to reduce ozone pollution in their geographic areas through reductions in nitrogen oxide emission (NOx) from out-of-state sources, along with other initiatives, the Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 17 began to clean the regulatory air that has grown murky as of late.

Director agrees, the Fortnightly doesn't get it.

In your Oct. 1, 1999 editorial regarding green power marketing, you stated that "the FTC would leave consumers in the dark on some environmental claims." (See "We Got Green?" Public Utilities Fortnightly, p. 4.) After reading your observations, we here at the FTC are in the dark as to why you believe that retail power marketers should be required to give consumers information that would shed no light on their purchase decisions.

In fending off the special interests, Congress spawned new inequities.

The fourth anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 most likely will be celebrated with more groans than cheers. The law set out to create "a pro-competitive, deregulatory national policy framework designed to accelerate rapidly private sector deployment of advanced telecommunications and information services to all Americans by opening all telecommunications markets to competition,"[Fn.1] but that objective has not been fulfilled.

California has a plan to track green electricity, but can it be trusted?

All electricity is the same, but the California Energy Commission wants to change that. It plans a system to authenticate the source of electricity to allow consumers to buy power from specific generators. Standard documents called "Certificates of Specific Generation" would certify financial transactions. Presumably, the plan would help document the authenticity of non-generic electricity products, such as green power.

Electric utility stocks bottomed out in 1999. It's up to managers to lead a rally.

The allure of technology stocks and rising interest rates combined to make 1999 the worst year for electric utility stocks since 1974, according to market analysts. But they see upside potential in the under-performance of these stocks, and say utility managers can play a role in attracting investors.

Once trailing, but now the frontrunner, Germany attempts to remake its fragmented energy markets - with no new federal bureaucracy.

Here's a timely recommendation for U.S. electric power executives: Maybe it's time to brush up on those long-forgotten high school German lessons. Suddenly, the German electric power market has become the fastest changing in the world. It all happened in less than the two years passed since Germany enacted a new energy law, which became fully effective on April 28, 1998.

Britain's top energy suppliers compete on price but offer their own unique benefits and incentives.

In addition to the effects of regulatory reform and policy, certain consumer, environmental and technological shifts in the United Kingdom are effecting significant changes in the manner in which electric and gas companies competing for customers in the mass market. The U.K. residential market was opened to electric retail competition between September 1998 to May 1999. As of September 1999, about 10 percent of all U.K. residential customers had changed electricity suppliers.

Deregulation in the E.U. is racing ahead, posing a challenge for U.S. firms. Yet the outcome is uncertain, as EdF, the giant of Europe, has yet to show its hand.

Eighty percent of the European power market will be open to retail competition, or liberalized, by 2003. The fundamental framework for shifting to a competitive market in Europe has some striking differences to the transition in the United States. Some primary contrasts with the U.S.