The Politics of Public Utility Regulation

Download or read book The Politics of Public Utility Regulation written by William T. Gormley, Jr. and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the important and increasingly controversial issues of utility regulation by combining a sophisticated understanding of these issues with a rigorous examination of various regulatory arrangements across the American states. It draws on interviews with participants in twelve states: public utility commissioners, commission staff members, utility company executives, governmental consumer advocates, and citizen activists. In addition to offering an up-to-date, comprehensive survey of regulatory politics at the state level, Gormley makes specific proposals for regulatory reform and emphasizes the importance (and difficulty) of assuring both expertise and accountability. Students of politics and public policy will find the state-level approach useful in examining the strategies of the "New Federalism" that transfer more and more formerly federal responsibilities to the states.