Energy and Utilities Law

This is FindLaw’s collection of Energy and Public Utilities Law articles, part of the Corporate Counsel Center Law Library. A public utility is a business or service, which may be publicly or privately owned, engaged in supplying the public generally with some commodity or service, such as electricity, gas, water, transportation, or telephone or telegraph service. The individual states’ various public utilities commissions oversee electric companies, while electric utility boards are delegated power by the state legislature. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.

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Energy and Utilities Law Articles

The Electric Power Industry and the Year 2000 Challenge: A Legal Perspective

Those few utility executives who were still unaware of the so-called Year 2000 problem got a wake-up call on December 8, 1997 when SEC Chairman, Arthur Levitt, warned the nation's utilities to prepare their computer systems to handle the Year 2000 ...
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Privatization in Bolivia

Bolivia has been seen for some years as one of the poorest countries in South America. This characterization, however, is no longer accurate. Bolivia is rapidly developing into an increasingly important country in the region. Among the reasons for ...
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Thelen Reid Report No. 393: SEC Recognizes New Standard for Gas Utility “Integration”

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued two orders under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) reinterpreting the "integration" standards under PUHCA in light of changes that have taken place in the natural gas ...
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Time-Of-Use Electricity Pricing Should Be Mandated As A Public Good

A time-of-use (TOU) pricing program Â– entailing for all retail electricity consumers effective differential pricing for peak and off-peak use and meters capable of recording such use Â– is a public good.1, 2 For this reason, government should ...
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Unbundling of Natural Gas Local Distribution Companies’ Services

On February 2, 1999, the Department of Telecommunications and Energy (the "Department") issued an order (the "Order") resolving certain issues associated with the restructuring of the natural gas industry, including: (1) capacity disposition, both ...
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Using International Franchising to Expand a Business

Following the domestic "franchise boom" in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and the dramatic increase in international franchise activity in the 1980s, franchising has become one of the premier vehicles for international business expansion ...
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Utility Industry Deregulation Stimulates New Product and Service Offerings for the Healthcare Industry

Deregulation of the electric and gas utility industry is creating new opportunities for the healthcare industry to manage and reduce costs. As traditional monopoly suppliers of gas and electricity become "unplugged" from state and federal ...
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Want Answers? Check the LawMarketing Discussion List

You ve accepted the task of marketing your law firm. At the end of a day of brainstorming, you ve outlined a rainmaking plan that already includes excellent ideas, itemized in detail. But as you ponder them, small questions stir a growing paranoia ...
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What’s In a Domain Name?

republished with permission of BlumbergExcelsior, Inc., Marketing Tools for Lawyers, 800 Law Mart - For lawyers, product is the service offered to clients (e.g. estate planning, collecting past due accounts, pursuing personal injury claims, etc. ...
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WTO Talks To Continue in Geneva after Seattle Failure

The failure this month of the Seattle Ministerial this month effectively ends the prospects for a comprehensive round of trade negotiations in the foreseeable future. Although negotiations on services and agriculture technically are required to ...
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