Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) released a letter last week fromFERC Chairman James J. Hoecker that is “sharply critical” ofelectric restructuring bill H.R. 2944, sponsored by Rep. Joe Barton(R-TX) and reported out of the House Energy and Power Subcommitteelast November. Hoecker’s letter was a response to a Nov. 3 inquiryby Markey.

Hoecker’s response “shows that the subcommittee-reportedelectricity restructuring bill would be a disaster for competitionand consumers,” said Markey, who proposed a bill of his own andvoted against the Barton legislation.

In his letter, Hoecker concluded that the current version of theBarton bill “represents an unfortunate retreat from the goal of acompetitive, efficient and transparent wholesale power market, agoal that would be much better served by adoption of H.R. 2050 orH.R. 1828 (the Largent-Markey bill and the Clinton Administration’sbill, respectively). In fact, H.R. 2944 moves in a direction thatis contrary, not only to Commission policy, but to economic andoperational developments in the marketplace itself.”

In a detailed analysis accompanying the letter, Hoecker providedalternative approaches to the provisions on market power, onregional transmission organizations, on certain grandfatheringactions and on its treatment of mergers. In almost every criticalarea, Hoecker said the bill would “move us in the wrong direction -locking in barriers to competition, balkanizing the markets andlocking in the monopoly power of the big utilities,” said Markey.”If we are going to have a real competition bill that Democrats cansupport and the President can sign, this bill will have to becompletely rewritten at the full committee level.”

Rocco Canonica

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