| Electricity Monopolies Threatened | ||||
The federal government permits a monopoly to exist for most public utilities in order to avoid wasteful capital investment. In recent years, however, new technologies and political moves seem to be leading to the breakup of power utility monopolies. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is examining the mechanisms and costings of power generation throughout the U.S. According to
the FERC Annual Report, The two most relevant FERC orders are: Order No. 888: Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Nondiscriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities; Recovery of Stranded Costs by Public Utilities and Transmitting Utilities Order No. 889: Open Access SameTime Information Systems and Standards of Conduct (OASIS) California's electric monopoly restructuring is big news. To try and stay ahead of federally mandated restructuring, Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison have embarked on a sell-off of many of their resources. The document the FERC is using as a template is: http://www.emanifesto.org/FERCNOPR/index.htm Various consumer groups have published responses to the initiative so far: California Public Utilities Commission: http://www.emanifesto.org/CPUC/ceert/CEERT-CPUC.htm |
||||
