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Did
monopoly lobby strike
big PR hit via Katrina?
Let's say you
favor monopoly and you're looking for ways to get good publicity.
How about the hurricanes?
Hurricanes?
Did not the electric companies
do a grand job in getting power to the people after the storm?
You could get Mississippi Gov
Haley Barbour, R-Miss, to talk about the great jobs the utilities
did after Katrina.
And so they did at the Phoenix
Hotel on Capital Hill. The theme, that integrated utilities can
best be depended on in times of crisis, was soft-pedaled but unmistakable.
We asked former Sen John Breaux
about the tie between the storm and competition.
"The purpose this morning
was to look at the largest national disaster we had and how did
the public utility company respond?"
In Breaux's mind "the
fully integrated companies ... the traditional full-service companies
were able to do the job that they did because they were in fact
comprehensive in generation and transmission and distribution and
they're part of their communities and they were there as fellow
citizens."
As evidence, Breaux added,
they were able to find the civic center of New Orleans before FEMA
found it.
We heard later from Sen Don
Nickles who retired recently from the Senate and speaks for COMPETE.
He praised the utilities too.
"Electric companies, regardless
of whether they operate in competitive markets or in a monopoly
region, take their commitment to their communities seriously,"
said Nickles.
"Competitive companies
have a proud history of working quickly and effectively to restore
power to the people and businesses they serve," Nickles added.
It was a theme built upon by
William Brier, EEI vice president for policy, who stressed how the
industry responds together via mutual assistance programs bringing
in crews from around the nation in times of need.
Joel Molina who runs COMPETE
was perplexed at the concept that if the hurricane had hit Virginia
instead of Louisiana that the recovery might be slower because Virginia
is in PJM and that's served by a variety of types of generation
such as from Dominion.
We were perplexed at the thought
that the utilities were widely praised by the panelists but Entergy,
the main utility, wasn't there and isn't a member of the Community
Power Alliance.
The CPA's kit included sheets
on each of the CPA members including SRP, the Salt River Project
in Phoenix.
SRP is against competition
but was not hit by the hurricanes.
Why wasn't Entergy there?
They hadn't been asked, we
were told. We suspect Entergy is a couple decades ahead of the CPA
folk on competition.
Something worth worrying about?
We don't know today how many
people will see Nickles' views. The room at the Phoenix was packed
when Gov Barbour was talking.
Previously he had served as
CEO of Barbour, Griffiths & Rogers, a company Fortune magazine
has called the nation's top lobbying firm.
Originally
published in Restructuring
Today on December 8, 2005
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