Rep. Ralph Hall, D-TX, said he believes this Congress will votestand-alone legislation to repeal the Public Utility HoldingCompany Act (PUHCA) as hopes for a comprehensive electricrestructuring bill fade. Talking to reporters after addressing theNatural Gas Roundtable in Washington Tuesday, Hall said the longerCongress puts off comprehensive legislation, the better theprospects get for piecemeal measures.

The trick for those whose priority is repeal of the dinosaur1935 act subjecting utility holding companies to Securities andExchange Commission oversight is to maintain the bill unadorned byfar-reaching amendments that make it look like electric andenvironmental restructuring rolled into one. Senate Majority LeaderTrent Lott, R-MS, has been trying to get a coalition to agree on alimited bill to bring to the Senate floor in the early days ofMarch, but it’s not clear he has succeeded. If the bill does makeit to the House side, it then runs into a minefield of keycongressmen staunchly defending all-or-nothing electricrestructuring. This is where it gets interesting.

There are some on the sidelines holding out the possibility thelegislators, after wrestling with electric restructuring for thelast two years, might just put something together and get itthrough this short-term, election-year Congress.

And, Hall might have the key to how it could be accomplished.The Texas Democrat said he is very much in favor of letting thestates take the lead on restructuring while the federal governmentaddresses only limited issues specifically in its domain. “I thinkCongress needs to let the states do just exactly what they’re doingnow. Then let us work on those things that are uniquely federal.”This may be an oft-repeated and previously-rejected idea whose timehas come.

Hall credited House Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman DanSchaefer for initiating restructuring legislation and keeping itunder discussion for the past two years. “This has galvanized a lotof states to work through complex problems by themselves.” At thispoint he sees a trend for congressional legislators to upholdwhatever their own state action has been, “because if there hasbeen state legislation, their governor must have been for it, theirspeaker of the house must have been for it and their leader of thesenate must have been for it. They will want to support what theirstate has done.”

Hall suggested giving the states some incentive. “Then let themdo the dots and the federal government can fill in the lines.” Andhe cautioned against Congress mandating collection of strandedcosts “when we don’t know what the stranded costs are.” It’spossible a restructuring bill outlining federal responsibilities,setting goals and time limits for the states, and stepping gingerlyaround the stranded costs issue could be rushed through in theclosing hours of a Congress preoccupied with re-election,congressional observers say. The spanner in the works of thatscenario could be extremely divisive environmental amendments thatkey congressmen, particularly from northeastern states, are likelyto require as the price of passage. That would open up humongousregional rivalries, flaming out the whole process.

On other issues Hall said in this short election-year session ofCongress whose opening days have been delayed by “naughtygate” heexpects the Congress to accomplish little beyond budgetary matters-appropriations and authorizations and a few “must do” items. Oneof those is to reauthorize the Energy Policy and Conservation Act(EPCA). “Anything can happen in Iraq. It appears to me the Arabs,even our long time friends, even the United Nations are not helpingus in anyway. We need to have a way and a place to facilitate themovement of crude in the event of a disruption.”

Ellen Beswick

©Copyright 1998 Intelligence Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed inwhole or in part without prior written consent of IntelligencePress,Inc.