Editorial: Back to the future for utilities?

Wednesday, April 18, 2001 | 9:29 a.m.

Fortunately for consumers, it is likely that the Senate soon will give its final approval to Assembly Bill 369, which will bring stricter regulation of power companies. In addition, the legislation temporarily prevents Nevada's electric companies from selling their power plants. This provision should protect consumers from out-of-state companies who might buy the power plants, and then turn around and gouge the utilities -- and in turn the consumers -- as happened in California when it deregulated its electric industry.

For now the Senate also has ultimately rejected the bid by the influential gaming and mining industries to amend the legislation in the hopes that they could shop around for cheaper power, while smaller businesses and residential customers would have been left behind to bear the burden of higher energy costs. Still, senators have hinted that this amendment could turn up later in different legislation, but this is a misguided proposal that should be killed.

The pieces of this complex electricity puzzle are starting to come together. Under the bill, utilities would stand a better chance of getting reimbursed for their actual energy costs. At the same time, consumers have been assured that there would be greater regulatory oversight to make sure that the electric companies aren't gouging customers. One last piece that is still being worked on is separate legislation that would promote renewable energy, an important component of providing a stable energy future for Nevada.

Who knows, electric deregulation could still be in Nevada's future. But until energy prices stabilize, and Nevada can be assured that it has an abundant supply of power, it's hard to imagine deregulation happening anytime soon.