Faltering

High natural gas market prices, combined with lower fixedcommodity prices for gas sold by local distributors, have stalledresidential and business customer choice programs in Michigan atcurrent levels and could even cause a reversal on some systems ifcustomers are allowed to return to the LDCs at low fixed prices.

For both regulators and legislators, California is awash in”unfinished business” in terms of getting its pioneering electricpower restructuring effort to result in robust competition, lowerprices and more significant choices for mass retail consumers,according to a variety of speakers at a two-day conferenceexamining the state’s 18-month-old experiment.