This article does a decent job of laying out the issues in something that most people find pretty arcane, but is a crucial debate in electricity deregulation -- repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA). Actually, that article does a much better job of articulating the arguments against repeal of PUHCA, so here I'd like to lay out some of the arguments in favor of repeal. Public power and "consumer advocates" see PUHCA as the sole remaining consumer protection against ever-increasing corporate, private utility market power, and they would like to see the SEC enforce it more vigorously instead of repealing it. On the other hand, opponents cast PUHCA as obsolete regulation that unnecessarily stifles innovation and investment in capital that would provide better service at lower cost. So where does this debate come from?
Electricity Deregulation and PUHCA
This article does a decent job of laying out the issues in something that most people find pretty arcane, but is a crucial debate in electricity deregulation -- repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA). Actually, that article does a much better job of articulating the arguments against repeal of PUHCA, so here I'd like to lay out some of the arguments in favor of repeal. Public power and "consumer advocates" see PUHCA as the sole remaining consumer protection against ever-increasing corporate, private utility market power, and they would like to see the SEC enforce it more vigorously instead of repealing it. On the other hand, opponents cast PUHCA as obsolete regulation that unnecessarily stifles innovation and investment in capital that would provide better service at lower cost. So where does this debate come from?