Need help from my fellow freepers. Deregulation questions.

Sir_Humphrey

[Sir_Humphrey]

I am researching this matter for classes which start next week.

Does anyone know which states which were hit by the blackout in the Northeast were deregulated? In light of the recent columns by Krugman and Conason (which blamed the blackout on deregulation). Of course if the editorial page of the NY times says it, it will just be a matter of time before young Democrats start chantting the mantra. I need to counter this BS, but I don't know where to begin. I can't seem to find out which of the effected states were deregulated. What websites would be best for me to research this.

Hopefully, some better informed freeper can point me in the right direction. As always, thanks in advance for all the help I know I will get.

[visualops]

"For two years, the Bush administration and leaders of congressional energy committee have called for new legislation to help expand the transmission system, but a major energy bill has yet to get through Congress."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61117-2003Aug15.html

A big problem is the envirowhackos who don't want us upgrading or building new.

[Cacophonous]

There was an excellent guest on C-SPAN last Thursday concerning deregulation. YOu might check out the transcript.

[JimVT]

For what it's worth....we didn't have any blackout in Vermont.

When the crunch came we just pulled the plug on New York!

Below is the Ch5 transcript on the story.

Vermont Barely Affected By Blackout

In Vermont during the blackout, there were some reports of flickering lights and a couple of brief outages in Franklin County, but other than that, the entire state dodged a bullet. However, that doesn't mean there might not be power trouble in the future. Utility officials said the state largely escaped the blackout by immediately disconnecting lines from New York. "We hope some of it was planning, but certainly a good part of it was luck," said Dorothy Schnure, spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power

[Alberta's Child]

I don't know which states in the Northeast have deregulated their energy markets, but I do know that all the complaints about "deregulation" with regard to this recent blackout are a lot of crap. New York City has suffered crippling blackouts in 1965, 1977, and 2003. The first two occurred before energy deregulation in New York, while the latest occurred after deregulation.

Based on that simple fact alone, it would seem to me that the Northeast would have to suffer two more crippling blackouts before anyone could say with any credibility that "deregulation" was the source of the problem.

[AZFolks]

I believe the most important weapon you have is the fact that while power generation has been deregulated, transmission grids have not

[BARLF]

Deregulation of the electrical industry began somewhat later, mainly under another Democrat, Bill Clinton. A crucial step came in 1992 with the passage of the Energy Policy Act, which gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) the power to force utilities to open their transmission networks to independent power producers. This provided the basis for breaking the monopoly of utilities over both production and distribution. The Clinton administration took more direct action in 1996, when FERC issued an order stepping up pressure on states to deregulate.

Found this on a socialist website.(Google)

Hard to believe Conason, (Joe(?)) didn't know this was pushed by Clinton. This isn't the help you were looking for but being a socialist website I was scanning thru I did find it interesting. LOL

[pachanga]

I dont believe any of the affected states are in fact 'deregulated.' Texas is the only one. I think there is confusion about deregulation because every regulated utility can buy energy produced by wholesaler generators so that while you get billed by ConEd, the electricity you used could have actually came from a Dynegy plant in west virginia. Real issue is that under the current REGULATIONS there is no incentive for power companies to invest in transmission systems. Also the feds (FERC) and the states are currently fighting for control of who should run the inter and intrastate transmission systems. So lots of politics involved--and it's a very complex issue which can differ state to state. Anyone who says simply that deregulation caused the blackouts does not understand the situation. If confronted with such an argument you should simply ask how the two are connected and try not to laugh as the stuttering starts. Or ask how many blackouts has texas had since they deregulated (answer is zero). And California was not deregulated since all they did was lift the cap on the wholesale side and not the regulated utility side--so when the enviroidiots wouldnt allow any new plants to be built for like 12 years or so they got screwed by lack of supply which drove up wholesale prices and caused bankruptcies for the still regulated utilities who had to buy the power at a high unregulated price due to short supply and sell at the lower regulated price.

Check out the Public Service Commission sites for the individual states or check out the FERC site (ferc.gov) for info. Hope this helps.

[BfloGuy]

Don't fall for the old nugget about deregulation. I don't believe any state has a truly deregulated energy system. Some are just a bit less regulated than others.

For example, in NYS we have deregulated portions of the electrical system. Other parts remain very controlled.

Ontario, on the other hand, has a gov't-owned, highly regulated electric utility -- a true monopoly -- and suffered more than most of the American states involved.

[Intolerant in NJ]

I believe the most important weapon you have is the fact that while power generation has been deregulated, transmission grids have not...this is essentially the analysis I heard several times - and since it was apparently the transmission system that failed, it was in fact the regulated portion that brought on the problem......

[secretagent]

FYI

[secretagent]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/968113/posts

"Although electricity generation was ostensibly deregulated in the '90s, the transmission grid remains highly regulated. Other network industries are spending billions rapidly building the sort of redundant networks that guard against cascading failure. Ending the regional monopolies would allow competitors to build competing infrastructure alone or in alliance with other network industries."

[The Energizer]

There really is no "deregulation." It's more properly called "restructuring," since there's still a lot of regulating going on.