Pennsylvania

Intro
1) Thank you.  I am pleased to participate in the Wharton Energy Conference because I believe the topics you address are critical to the economic and national security interests of our country.  These conferences are important to you as students of energy policy.  You are learning about the complex intersection of finance, regulations and industry dynamics at a crucial time in the history of our country.  I hope that my thoughts today will help inform the energy executives, entrepreneurs and policy makers of the future.

2) Acknowledgements

Pennsylvania Should Not Deregulate Electric Rates
By William L. Massey
The Bulletin, PA
February 11, 2009

To the Editor:

In response to Tom Knox (op-ed, “Pennsylvania Should Not Deregulate Electric Rates,” Feb. 2), it is important to understand that Pennsylvania electricity consumers have yet to see the full benefits of competitive markets because competition hasn’t been allowed to work freely.

Letters: And rate caps distorted reality
By William L. Massey, COMPETE Coalition
Philadelphia Daily News
January 26, 2009

HARRISBURG, PA – Pennsylvania’s restructured electricity market is working well and helping to preserve jobs in Pennsylvania’s economy, large electricity consumers will tell the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission (PA PUC) at a public hearing tomorrow.  The hearing will feature testimony in support of the state’s competitive electricity market including businesses that employ thousands in Pennsylvania, such as the retailer Wal-Mart and manufacturer Leggett & Platt.

The COMPETE Coalition, a national coalition that promotes the continued evolution of competitive electric markets, today outlined the many benefits of wholesale electricity markets in advance of tomorrow’s Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission hearing on the future of wholesale electricity markets.

National and Pennsylvania-based businesses are urging Pennsylvania policymakers to allow competition in the state’s retail electricity market to flourish.  The businesses -- which collectively represent 1387 facilities and 97,941 workers in Pennsylvania and purchase more than $125 million of electricity annually in the state -- asked Governor Rendell and all state policymakers for their “support for a competitive energy marketplace for the region by allowing the wholesale and retail electricity markets, with independent oversight, to continue to grow.”