The recent energy bill is not only full of pork, it rolls back New Deal legislation designed to protect utility customers.
The section of the 2005 Energy Policy Act repealing PUHCA is a tiny, almost invisible portion of the massive document. But as a result of the simple line ("The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (15 U.S.C. 79 et seq.) is repealed."), there are now no restrictions on who can buy public utilities. Holding companies will no longer be required to divest non-utility businesses; geographic limitations or restrictions on number of holdings are similarly gone. Even the SEC has been taken out of the process, replaced by a much-scaled-down review by the Federal Energy Regulations Commission (FERC).
In short, the repeal of PUHCA means that public utility companies are now fair game for buyouts and consolidation. One likely scenario is that we see a process of merger and acquisition in the energy utility market akin to that in the telecommunications arena. Moreover, as major global energy companies such as ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco have been at the forefront of efforts to get PUHCA repealed, it's highly likely that they -- along with other energy majors -- will look to spend some of their recent windfall profits on utility acquisition, buying not just the power supply businesses, but the customer information. But it need not be an oil firm buying up utilities; billionaire investors and non-energy industry companies could just as easily buy up local utilities.
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