1 Michigan Jobs Commission, "Jobs Agenda," Internet Web Site: http://www.mjc.state.mi.us/mjc/agenda.html.
2 Letter for Michigan Governor John Engler to Michigan Public Service Commission Chairman John G. Strand, January 8, 1996.
3 For a comprehensive survey of the benefits of deregulation in other industries see: Robert Crandall and Jerry Ellig, Economic Deregulation and Customer Choice: Lesson for the Electric Industry, (Fairfax, VA: Center for Market Processes, 1997).
4 Jonathan Marshall, "Competition Comes to the Electron Superhighway," The American Enterprise, May/June 1995, p. 84.
5 Michael T. Maloney, Robert E. McCormick, and Robert D. Sauer, Customer Choice, Customer Value: An Analysis of Retail Competition in America’s Electric Industry, Washington, D.C.: Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, 1996, p.
6 Ibid.
7 John C. Moorhouse, "Competitive Markets for Electricity Generation," Cato Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3, Winter 1995, p. 430.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., p. 432.
10 G. Stein, "Competitive Electricity," Presentation at ELCON’s 1993 Annual Seminar, Washington, D.C., October 14, 1993.
11 Clyde Wayne Crews, "Ending the Electricity Monopoly," The Journal of Commerce, September 1, 1995.
12 "Preliminary Results of Pilot Programs in Illinois, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts," ELCON report based on data from the Wheeled Electric Power Company, November 1996.
13 Clyde Wayne Crews, "Electricity Competition Can Save Michigan Millions: A Back-of-the-Envelope Analysis," Competitive Enterprise Institute, May 1996.
14 Ibid.
15 William T. McCormick, Jr., "Electricity Systems Must Remain Reliable," Saginaw News, April 7, 1997, p. A5.
16 Doug Bandow, Competition in Electric Power: Strategies for Reform, John Locke Foundation, Policy Report, No. 14, July 1996.
17 Michigan Jobs Commission, A Framework for Electric and Gas Utility Reform, January 8, 1996.
18 Michigan Public Service Commission, Staff Report on Electric Industry Restructuring, December 19, 1996.
19 Frank Kelley, Attorney General, State of Michigan, Testimony Before the Michigan Public Service Commission, January 14, 1997, Lansing, MI.
20 MPSC Staff Report, op. cit., p. 7.
21 For a comprehensive discussion of stranded costs issues see: Adam D. Thierer, "Electricity Deregulation: Separating Fact From Fiction in the Debate Over Stranded Cost Recovery," Heritage Foundation Talking Points No. 20, March 10, 1997.
22 MPSC Staff Report, op. cit., p. 12.
23 See: Christopher Garbacz, "Never, Never Use the ‘S’ Word! Always Say ‘Losses’," Public Utilities Fortnightly, December 1996.
24 Kelley, op. cit.
25 This should not be surprising since as noted regulatory economist Alfred E. Kahn argues, "When a commission is responsible for the performance of an industry, it is under never completely escapable pressure to protect the health of the companies it regulates, to assure a desirable performance by relying on those monopolistic chosen instruments and its own controls rather than on the unplanned and unplannable forces of competition." Furthermore, Kahn notes of the regulator-regulatee relationship: "Responsible for the continued provision and improvement of service, [the regulatory commission] comes increasingly and understandably to identify the interest of the public with that of the existing companies on whom it must rely to deliver goods." Alfred E. Kahn, The Economics of Regulation: Principles and Institutions, Vol. 2: Institutional Issues, (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1971, 1991), p. 12, 46.
26 MPSC Staff Report, op. cit., p. 3.
27 Barry Cargill, Vice President for Government Relations, Small Business Association of Michigan, Testimony Before the Michigan Public Service Commission, January 14, 1997.
28 Quoted in Mark Hornbeck, "Memo: State Electric Plan ‘Bad News’," The Detroit News, April 29, 1997, p. 1A, 3A.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Quoted in: Peter Coy, "Electricity: The Power Shift Ahead," Business Week, December 2, 1996, pp. 79-80.
32 "California’s Delegation United on Electricity Deregulation," CQ Monitor, March 24, 1997, p. 5.
33 For an excellent critique of the California electricity deregulation plan see: Jerry Taylor, "High Voltage Swindle: Why Electricity Restructuring Could Electrocute Ratepayers," Cato Institute This Just In, February 6, 1997.
34 The Securitization Swindle, A White Paper by IPALCO Enterprises, Inc., (Indianapolis, IN: May, 1997), pp. 5-6.
35 Ibid.
36 Michaels, op. cit.
37 Dr. Jake Haulk, "Dealing With Stranded Costs in Electric Utility Deregulation," Allegheny Institute for Public Policy Allegheny Institute Report #96-11, October 1996, pp. 13-14.
38 MPSC Staff Report, op. cit., p, 44.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 "Citing New Poll, Bliley Uses Earth Day to Push for Electricity Deregulation," The White House Bulletin, April 22, 1997, p. 4; "Given a Choice, Two-Thirds Would Pay More for Clean Electric Power," U.S. Congress, House Commerce Committee, April 22, 1997.
42 Ibid., p. 45.