Conversations with energy and environmental policy experts exploring the best state and federal policies to effectuate the urgently needed transition to a clean-energy economy at least cost to consumers. Lot’s of wonky FERC stuff. State-level utility regulation and politics. Economists. Lawyers. Engineers. Politicians. Government regulators. Advocates. And acronyms. Lots of acronyms. Topical discussions about energy market developments with a focus on regulatory policies that disincentivize the innovation necessary to advance environmental and climate change objectives at least cost to consumers and the economy. Hosted by Bryan Lee, an energy and environmental policy consultant with decades of Washington, D.C.-based experience as a journalist, government official and energy company executive. Lee and invited guests discuss the latest developments at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal agencies, Capitol Hill, as well as happenings at state-level regulatory commissions and legislatures.
John Farrell, director of ILSR's Energy Democracy Initiative, sees municipal ownership of utilities as an answer to the abuses consumers suffer at the hands of investor-owned monopoly utility companies. But he also sees competitive markets as enabling the sorts of local self-reliance his organization promotes.
”I think the lesson we've seen from the way that we regulate monopoly for-profit utilities is that we need a lot more discipline from competition because our belief that regulation would mimic competition, which is how it's supposed to work, that's the theory behind it, is that it's not working at all,” Farrell says. ”These companies are making far much greater profit than they would if they were in a competitive market, and they've often used the monopoly power that they have to restrict competitors for entering. So I'm a big believer that competitive markets are an important component of how we solve the energy problems we have today.”