All over the country, utilities, like the vestiges of the old Soviet Union communist system, are using their political power to protect market share. Some environmentalists have joined TURN in viewing the restructuring of the electric service industry as an opportunity to allow citizens to have a greater say in where their power comes from. Deregulation is both a crisis and an opportunity for the environment. Though traditional regulatory levers may be lost, price competition could, if coupled with appropriate public policy safeguards, force early closure of uneconomic nuclear power plants and invite investment in new technologies. The danger associated with restructuring is that clean power sources will get shoved outside of the system during the transition, allowing utility-owned power plants to dominate.
Deregulation is both a crisis and an opportunity for the environment.
All power producers should meet the same minimum air emissions standards. At present, old, dirty utility-owned power plants have been largely exempted from air quality standards on the grounds that they do not run often and are near retirement age. In a price-driven deregulated market, these dinosaur plants, built during the Korean War or earlier, may enjoy a substantial competitive advantage over newer, and cleaner, competitors. Growing numbers of market enthusiasts and public interest advocates support a vision of a market based on new investment in cleaner and cost efficient energy sources. This should be the end goal of restructuring.