COMPETE Coalition

Competitive electricity markets unlock the innovative solutions required to meet America’s energy needs and environmental objectives, said experts at a COMPETE Coalition panel discussion event. Unless markets are opened up to competition, the nation’s energy system cannot reach its full potential.

Competitive markets promote competition among power suppliers to deliver the best possible service to attract and retain customers. Comparatively, in monopoly-protected states, incumbent power providers have no incentive to innovate because ratepayers are captive to their monopoly utility and power suppliers are guaranteed recovery of their costs plus a profit.

Markets unleash “ingenuity” and send the proper price signals for investment.  So says Senator John Kerry, D-MA, on the stump to drum up support for a tri-partisan climate change bill he is developing with Senators Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and Joseph Lieberman, I-CT.  Kerry is a strong advocate of creating a market-based program to limit emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.  He pointed to the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, which created a similar market-based program to cost-effectively limit acid rain-producing emissions of sulfur dioxide from power plants. “It works,” Kerry said succinctly of such market-based environmental programs.

The COMPETE Coalition welcomes Senator Kerry’s pro-market commentary, and invites him and his staff to review a joint statement by COMPETE and the Environmental Defense Fund underscoring the importance of competitive electricity markets for electricity as a complement to any market-based program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. 

In a clear demonstration of the widely diverse support for competitive electricity markets across the country, the COMPETE Coalition recently announced it has surpassed 400 total members. COMPETE’s membership roster is one of the most diverse of its kind and reveals broad recognition of the economic and environmental benefits provided by competition in organized regional electricity markets. 

Founded in 2005, COMPETE continues to meet the needs of companies and organizations that understand how competitive markets foster the innovation and technology development necessary to meet 21^st century energy challenges, address climate change, and provide lower-cost power to consumers. The coalition experienced a 43 percent increase in membership in 2009.