Electricity

This LA Times article from Monday contrasts electricity policy in Texas and California, and makes it crystal clear how colossal a policy failure the California “deregulation” was. Furthermore, the article illustrates the major point, that California’s woes were not the fault of deregulation, which when done well, creates value for consumers and for innovative suppliers …

Electricity Deregulation In Texas And California, Worlds Apart Read More »

Yesterday the state of California filed 3,000 pages with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to substantiate their claims for larger refunds from energy companies that provided power in the state during the electricity crisis in 2000-2001. The documents have been filed to support a claim for $7.5 billion in refunds, much more than the $1.8 …

California’s Energy Refunds Read More »

A recently-released manifesto,spearheaded by UC-Berkeley’s Institute of Management, Innovation & Organization, provides another call for market forces in California’s electricity industry in the face of increasing regulation and debt-laden utilities and generators. I have provided the press release below, and it is also available at the RPPI website. The full text of the manifesto and …

Electricity Competition Manifesto Read More »

Richard Epstein’s Financial Times article on Wednesday lays out some problems that arise when you try to change the regulatory approach in a network industry in which technological change happens. He’s discussing telecom and the “deregulation” in the 1996 legislation, but as Keith at Liberty Lover points out, Epstein’s analysis has important insights for electricity …

Richard Epstein On Regulatory Transition Read More »

CMS Energy won’t issue dividends in 2003 in an attempt to improve its liquidity, American Electric Power declared a 4th quarter loss and will cut jobs and investment, and these developments led other utility stocks lower this morning. This is the continuing fallout from the collapse of the energy trading sector of the industry, and …

Losses Continue In The Electricity Industry Read More »

Illinois nominally opened its electricity generation to competition for all consumers as of May 2002. Have we seen much entry? Heard much consumer education? Seen any advertising from competitors? No. It’s been staggeringly disappointing. But that may change soon. Peoples Energy, our less-than-impressive natural gas former monopoly utility, has contracted with Hess Microgen to provide …

Electricity Competition In Illinois, Finally? Read More »

According to the Alliance for Retail Markets, Texas’s restructuring law is working. They measure that success by consumer switching, which at 6.5 percent is high relative to switching experience in other states, and by estimated consumer savings of $6-14/month for those who have switched. I have quibbles with these measures of success, because it does …

New Report Says Electricity Restructuring Is Working In Texas Read More »