WASHINGTON, May 26: The Senate Energy Committee approved a wide-ranging energy bill on Thursday that includes repealing a Depression-era law limiting utility mergers in exchange for giving the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission more authority to review them.
The bill, which aims to boost domestic production of oil, natural gas, coal, ethanol and other energy sources, will go to the full Senate for a vote in early June. The US House of Representatives has already approved its version of an energy bill, which includes $8 billion in tax breaks and incentives.
The Senate panel finished writing its energy legislation with the utility merger issue, which comes amid rapid consolidation in the industry, including this week’s sale of PacifiCorp to MidAmerican Energy for $5.1 billion.
Republican lawmakers have long pushed to repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), enacted in 1935 to protect consumers by requiring utilities to limit their operations to a single area or region. They contend it is an outdated law that discouraged investment in the electricity sector.
Some Democrats on the Senate panel agreed to eliminating PUHCA only if FERC was given more authority to approve mergers to prevent more Enron-type corporate wrongdoing.
The legislative language approved by the committee would expand FERC’s authority to review the impact of utility mergers on competition and consumer rates. The measure was added to a broader energy bill that the committee debated over five days and finally approved in a 21-to-1 vote. Democrat Ron Wyden from Oregon was the lone dissenter.—Reuters
