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Pricing Challenges Facing Maine’S Utility Regulators, Thomas L. Welch

Maine Policy Review

Decisions concerning the pricing of public utilities are rarely made without controversy. Electric utilities have garnered the lion's share of the attention in recent months because of the rising cost to consumers of electricity, despite surplus generating capacity and relatively cheap power available on the open market. But other regulated utilities—natural gas, telecommunications, and water—also face important pricing issues in the months ahead. The 1994 conference, sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center's Project for the Study of Public Regulation and the Environment [PURE], explored several of these issues earlier this year. An important Maine perspective on pricing issues …