On April 21, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) sent a letter to Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT), John Warner (R-VA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and James Inhofe (R-OK) commenting on the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill. In the letter, the group stated support for a federal bill that is economy-wide, but advocated certain modifications. For example, they suggested that free allowances to be given to all load-serving entities (LSEs) as opposed to 19% to generators and 9% to LSEs. The letter also expressed concern about the way the bills structured as it will favor generators in restructured markets over traditionally regulated markets. Additionally, the NARUC letter said if allowances are allocated to generators who sell at market prices, state commissions will be unable to prevent the value of those allowances from being charged to the end-use customer in the form of higher prices and will provide windfall profits for generation-owners. Finally, the letter states that allocations should be based on historic emissions.
For a copy of the letter, please contact Morgan Meguire at lpickford@morganmeguire.com