How Regulatory Risk Has Moved Front and Center in the Tug-of-War between State Commissions and Public Utilities

Deregulation of generation, volatile commodity markets and an increase in proposed utility mergers have heightened the stakes in the historic struggle of public service commissions to balance the interests of ratepayers and shareholders. The authors review this struggle and its impact on recent requests for rate increases and the pending approval of several mergers announced in the past few years.