CO2-Capture Coal Plants: A Ban by Another Name
The top agenda item for many climate activists (James Hansen, for example) is stopping the construction of new coal-fired power plants. Coal is the most carbon-intensive fuel, and the carbon dioxide...
View ArticleCONSOLIDATED UTILITIES COMPANY ANNUAL REPORT (Management’s Letter to...
Dear Fellow Shareholders: By now you have heard news reports of Consolidated Utilities (ConU)’s $1 billion cost overrun on the construction of our nuclear plant. However, that’s just part of the good...
View ArticleConU: Rate Base Diseconomies all the Way to the Bank (a parody)
CONSOLIDATED UTILITIES (ConU) COMPANY ANNUAL REPORT Management’s Letter to Stockholders Dear Fellow Shareholders: By now you have heard news reports of ConU’s $1 billion cost overrun on the...
View ArticleThe Public Utility Regulatory Formula–and Its Alternative
“The formula gives the utility little incentive to reduce operating costs as these are passed through allowing full recovery. As long as the rate of return (rr) is above the cost of debt, the rate base...
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Regulation of Public Utilities as a Pseudo Tax
“The very term ‘public utility’ … is an absurd one. Every good is useful ‘to the public’, and almost every good, if we take a large enough chunk of supply as the unit, may be considered ‘necessary’....
View ArticlePublic Utility Ratemaking 101 (the problems of rate base, cost passthrough)
“In Georgia and South Carolina, for example, the nuclear-related cost overruns are a good thing. Not only is rate base enlarged for assigned profits for decades, the CEOs can tell victimized consumers...
View ArticlePublic Utility Regulation 201: The Rate Case
“One interesting rate base item is storm damage. We are accustomed to seeing news coverage of tearful hurricane victims praising the heroic utility workers who restore their electrical service. Not so...
View ArticleUtility Regulation: The Rate Case (opportunities to game)
“We are accustomed to seeing news coverage of tearful hurricane victims praising the heroic utility workers who restore their electrical service. Not so heroic is the way the utility accountants are...
View ArticleFERC’s ‘Workable Competition’ Standard: A 1992 Note for Today
“What is underemphasized or missing in the working paper is consideration of real-world competition as the industry understands it. In other words, rate discounting, surplus capacity, new entry and...
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