The Politics Of Public Utility Regulation

The Politics of Public Utility Regulation focuses on the important and increasingly controversial issues of utility regulation by combining a sophisticated understanding of these issues with a rigorous examination of various regulatory arrangements across the American states. It draws on interviews with participants in twelve states: public utility commissioners, commission staff members, utility company executives, governmental consumer advocates, and citizen activists. In addition to offering an up-to-date, comprehensive survey of regulatory politics at the state level, Gormley makes specific proposals for regulatory reform and emphasizes the importance (and difficulty) of assuring both expertise and accountability. Students of politics and public policy will find the state-level approach useful in examining the strategies of the “New Federalism” that transfer more and more formerly federal responsibilities to the states.

Utilities have long been essential for societies, supplying basic services for nations, organizations and households alike. The proper functioning and regulation of utilities is therefore critical for the economy, society and security. History provides an invaluable insight into important issues of the economic and social regulation of utilities and offers guidance for future debates. However, the history of utility regulation – which speaks of changing, diverse and complex experiences around the world – was sidelined or marginalised when economists and policy-makers enthusiastically embraced the question of how to reform the utilities from the 1970s. This book examines in depth the complex regulation and deregulation of energy, communications, transportation and water utilities across Western Europe, the United States, Australia, Brazil, China and India. In each case, attention is drawn to the changing roles of the state, the market and firms in the regulation, organization and delivery of utility services. This book was originally published as a special issue of Business History.

Examine thorough, objective explanations of concepts; an overview of political issues, policy standards, and regulation; and a clear view of the challenges and opportunities facing utilities and regulators today.

Traditional theories hold that regulatory agencies act mainly as champions of the interest they are meant to oversee. Anderson looks at regulation within the fast-changing environment. By adding the external political and internal bureaucratic variables he evaluates the capture theory.

For the past several decades, a climate of deregulation has encompassed industries ranging from public utilities to mass transportation. Harry Martin Trebing has been at the forefront of this debate as one of the foremost specialists in the world in the field of public utility regulation. Warren J. Samuels and Edythe S. Miller have collected a series of articles that assess Harry Trebing's theories on public utility regulation while examining his towering contribution to the field.

This book provides a comprehensive discussion of the public policy and management issues that are encountered in the regulation of infrastructure and utilities. Drawing from theoretical arguments and several case studies, the book is divided into three parts, namely devising regulation, installing regulation, and making regulation work. The first part covers theories of regulation, regulatory policies, strategies and tools, and regulatory reforms. The second part deals with the politics of regulation and regulatory capacity. The third part discusses regulatory commitment and investments, the performance of regulated industries, and the design of regulatory systems. Case studies pay attention to various sectors (including water, electricity, telecommunications, highways, railways, district heating, and airports) from countries in every region of the world. ; ;

David B. Smith This is a book about the application of economic theory to a unique form of social control - public utility regulation. A central theme of this work is to examine the role that economics has played in shaping the rationale and direction of regulatory practices. While economic theory has played an important role in the shaping of regulatory policy in the past, it has an even greater potential role to play in the future as the regulatory community grapples with the many challenges of a changing economic environment. This is a very timely and much needed piece of work that can serve as a reference for decision makers who are facing the challeng ing problems of deregulation and competition. This work is comprised of 13 selected articles that guide the reader from an initial discussion of why we decided to regulate certain industries in the first place to a specific analysis of what role economic theory has played in the electric, natural gas, telecommunications, and water indus tries, and whether it should be allowed to play an even more dominant role in the future. The reader is then provided with a more modern version of what economists mean by the concept of natural monopoly and a menu of policy options that will allow society to derive any benefits from such a market structure.