Retail Electricity Workshop Set for September

The FTC has set September 13-14, 1999, as the dates for its public workshop examining the competition and consumer protection issues involved with deregulating and restructuring the U.S. electric industry.

The FTC seeks to convene a workshop that will allow such idea sharing on two topics that bear directly on the FTC's expertise -- market power (e.g. evaluating and addressing horizontal market power concerns in generation) and consumer protection (e.g. disclosures by electric service providers of environmental attributes of power they are selling). The intent of the workshop is to provide a forum for discussing the experience under policies that have been implemented at the state level, rather than attempting to provide all of the answers to a complex set of issues that vary by region and locale. The FTC anticipates that a robust exchange of views and ideas among those working on the issues will prove stimulating and useful as the regulatory reform process moves forward.

The National Regulatory Research Institute and the National Council for Competition in the Electric Industry are cosponsoring the workshop which will be held at the FTC in Room 432, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

A notice about the workshop was published in the Federal Register on Friday, April 23, 1999. The Commission vote to convene the workshop was 4-0.

For more information about the workshop, contact: Michael Wroblewski, FTC, 202-326-2155, email: mwroblewski@ftc.gov, John C. Hilke, FTC, 303-844-3565, email: jhilke@ftc.gov, Gina Schaar Howard, FTC, 202-326-2982, email: ghoward@ftc.gov, or David Balto, FTC, 202-326-2881, email: dbalto@ftc.gov.

To preregister for the workshop, contact: Wendy Givler, National Research Regulatory Institute at The Ohio State University, 1080 Carmack Road, Columbus, Ohio 43210, telephone: 614-292-9106, email: givler.4@osu.edu.

Copies of the Federal Register Notice mentioned in this FYI are available from the FTC's web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580; 202-FTC-HELP (202-382-4357); TDD for the hearing impaired 1-866-653-4261. To find out the latest news as it is announced, call the FTC NewsPhone recording at 202-326-2710.

(FTC File No. V990001)