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Global Adjustment: A Political Time Bomb in Ontario, Canada

By Peter Murphy, Associate, Gowlings LLP, February, 11, 2010 - Prior to April, 2009, most Ontario electricity consumers in Ontario, Canada paid little attention to the "Provincial Benefit" line item on their electricity bills. They had little reason to. Since its inception in 2005, the Provincial Benefit, known in Ontario's electricity industry as the Global Adjustment, was a relatively small adjustment on Ontario electricity consumers' electricity bills. more...
Article Viewed 1484 Times | 26 Comments

A Premise for the Pendulum

By Roger Feldman, Counsel, Andrews Kurth LLP, January, 26, 2010 - The end of one year and beginning of another makes one think of the various theories of history. "History" is the human effort to anthromorphize time so as to hold the fear of uncertainty at bay and make interpretable sense out of messy reality. For some historians, the past has moved in cycles. For the optimistic, teleologically toward an even better level of stasis. For the pessimistic, inevitably it is a jagged saw-toothed graph, with the downturn the product of corrupt human nature. more...
Article Viewed 934 Times | 3 Comments

The Right FIT for California

By Tam Hunt, Director of Energy Programs, Community Environmental Council, August, 24, 2009 - California is on the precipice of passing into law a game-changing Feed-In Tariff (FIT) policy that will unleash the tremendous potential of renewable energy and provide a massive economic boost in California. more...
Article Viewed 2786 Times | 18 Comments

Cooperative Federalism

By Roger Feldman, Counsel, Andrews Kurth LLP, July, 06, 2009 - In the absence of "Cooperative Federalism" the development of so-called "Green Infrastructure," as contemplated both by the Stimulus Package and by the forthcoming initiatives from the President and Congress in the areas of energy, security, and climate change regulation, will be thwarted. more...
Article Viewed 3167 Times | 10 Comments

The Pitfalls of and Opportunities in Electric Power Deregulation

By Harry Valentine, Commentator/Energy Researcher, , June, 01, 2009 - The deregulation of several sectors of the national economy became the vogue during the Reagan administration in Washington and the Thatcher administration in the UK. Margaret Thatcher had read The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek (Nobel laureate in 1976) and was inspired to privatize some of Britain's state-owned enterprises as the socialist economies of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union collapsed. Friederich Hayek had been a student of Ludwig von Mises whose treatise entitled Socialism detailed the downfalls of state ownership and state management of a national economy and how such an economy would ultimately fail. more...
Article Viewed 4388 Times | 84 Comments

Coordinated Regulation or Jurisdictional Wrestling: Which Will Produce Better Industry Performance?

By Scott Hempling, Director, National Regulatory Research Institute, May, 01, 2009 - Last month's essay began a series on the federal-state jurisdictional relationship. For interstate industries, federal-state simultaneity is unavoidable -- and good for consumers. Why, then, does this interdependency produce so much irritability? Among my illustrations: when the "federal vs. state" dispute is actually a state vs. state dispute. This month's essay explores this example in real time: namely, some states' discomfort with FERC jurisdiction over "resource adequacy." more...
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A great day for renewable energy

By Tam Hunt, Director of Energy Programs, Community Environmental Council, November, 13, 2008 - With President-elect Obama closing the deal in a resounding manner, let's review his proposed energy policies. Obama has long called for action to mitigate climate change and to decrease foreign energy dependence. Obama has not to my knowledge ever discussed peak oil, but the general rubric of "energy independence" captures some of the key features of the peak oil discussion. more...
Article Viewed 4543 Times | 48 Comments

Regulatory Resources: Does the Differential Make a Difference?

By Scott Hempling, Director, National Regulatory Research Institute, November, 10, 2008 - Effective regulation aims for excellence. Regulators must establish standards, design rewards and penalties, then evaluate. The process should induce continuous improvement in utility performance. more...
Article Viewed 2969 Times | 3 Comments

Essential to Effectiveness: Community Acceptance of Regulation's Mission

By Scott Hempling, Director, National Regulatory Research Institute, October, 08, 2008 - My first eleven monthly essays described the attributes and practices of the effective regulator. An effective regulator cannot ensure effective regulation. We also need, throughout the regulatory and political communities, acceptance of regulation's purpose. more...
Article Viewed 3105 Times | 6 Comments

Does Agency Compliance Lead to Better Emergency Plans?

By Samuel Mullen, Principal, MPS Communications & Planning, July, 30, 2008 - Through the 1970s and most of the 1980s, electric utilities were guided by few regulations covering requirements for emergency plans, outside of those at nuclear and other plants. This meant that utilities basically started with a clean sheet of paper and wrote down strategies and procedures that would, for example, lead them to a recovery following a major storm. Plans were usually organized in a three-ring binder, with logo-enhanced cover, and placed on the shelf behind the T&D manager’s desk or in the dispatch center. Several months later an exercise might be planned, but there were few or no metrics to measure results. Employees were sometimes told that their utility had a plan, but few people saw it or knew how it could affect them. more...
Article Viewed 2669 Times | Be the first to comment on this article.

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