Energy Bill would drive public utilities out of business

[donsu]

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/23184/

A little-discussed section of the Bush energy bill will drive public utilities out of business, letting oil giants like Halliburton control your electricity.


One of the least-discussed provisions in the Bush energy bill that has passed the House and is now fast-tracked in the Senate is PUHCA repeal. "Pooka repeal," you say, "what's that?"

The Public Utilities Holding Company Act (PUHCA) is a cornerstone New Deal financial reform signed into law in 1935. It was the biggest battle in FDR's first term. Utilities had become cash cows for power moguls who created complex holding company pyramids for milking ultra-reliable ratepayer income to feed speculative investments. The crash of 1929 knocked these structures flat and took down millions of small investors who had been sold on the reliability of utilities as an investment.

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Both the House and Senate versions of the energy bill now contain the PUHCA repeal provision. At the insistence of Democrats, the Senate added in some extra oversight by FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission), but it is a thin reed compared to PUHCA.

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Lynn Hargis is an attorney with a long professional career in power generation, including ten years at FERC. For the past two years, she has held a volunteer position at Public Citizen educating the public about the perils of PUHCA repeal. She says that "it is clearly impossible for a state (or even federal) utility commission, with its limited staff, to review, much less understand and control, the books and records of a huge conglomerate ..." Once PUHCA is gone, she predicts, "there will be a white-hot fury of buying and selling utilities and utility assets -- it will be a revival of the 1920s, when three huge companies owned half of all utilities."
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[lynettebro440]

1. Can we smell another Enron

But this time it won't just be California getting screwed, more like the whole USA. Boy, I can hardly wait. :hurts:

[NashVegas]

2. At Least the Next Enron Won't Have to Defraud States to Drive Up Cost

They'll be able to jack it up at whim.

[Fovea]

3. I see a bad moon rising.

This is so bad, I don't think non-Californians understand what Enron did to them. Just wait.

[TheFarseer]

4. I hope rural people get their electricity cut

so that corporate profits can go up! That is unregulated capitalism. You voted for it America and you got it!