National policy dialogue on state and federal regulation of the electricity industry - staff report on a Keystone policy dialogue

摘要

For over two years, The Keystone Center facilitated a dialogue on State and Federal Regulation of the Electricity Industry. The intent of this report is to assist policy-makers faced with decisions about changes to traditional utility regulation and planning and provide an overview of a diverse group's deliberations on regulatory jurisdictional conflicts. This report is not a consensus document, rather it is a staff written summary of two years of discussion on the issues. The participants in the Keystone Dialogue believed that all affected interests could benefit from, if nothing else, a summary of their discussions of state/federal issues. The electric utility industry is one of the last remaining, heavily regulated industries in the United States. Rate and corporate regulation is split between state and federal governments and there is distinct regulatory authority at each level. For example, retail rate regulation occurs at the state level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is responsible for wholesale rate regulation under the Federal Power Act, and the Securities and Exchange Commission oversees registered utility holding companies as defined under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. This jurisdictional split between state and federal regulation has evolved over many years through legislation and litigation on such matters. The creation of this allocation of regulatory responsibility was initiated in 1935 with the passage of the Public Utility Holding Company Act and the Federal Power Act when the economic and technological changes that are now occurring in the industry simply could not have been envisioned.