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REPP-CREST
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Other Publications by REPP
In addition to a diverse portfolio of planned publications, REPP is undertaking a number of broader work products that could prove useful to the renewable energy community, inlcuding our Initiatives program. Still others are currently dependent on securing further funding.
REPP's other publications include:
Product reviews
 Power Loss: The Origins of Deregulation and Restructuring in the American Electric Utility System
In years past, state regulatory commissioners controlled the fate of sustainable energy. Regulators decided what kind of power plants investor-owned utility firms could build, and how much they could charge ratepayers for the power they delivered. Some commissioners acted stoutly to encourage higher energy efficiency and greater use of renewable energy; others showed tepid interest or none at all. Those days are passing fast, however, as state after state "restructures" its power system to allow customers-not regulators-to decide what kind of electricity they want to buy. The success of sustainable energy depends on how well entrepreneurs and advocates can navigate these strange new waters.
In Power Loss, author Richard Hirsh offers a clear, well-written account of why and how these changes are occurring. Dr. Hirsh, a professor of Science and Technology Studies and of the History of Technology at Virginia Tech (and author in 1989 of Technology and Transformation in the American Electric Utility Industry), shows how utility managers themselves sought regulation as "natural monopolies" in order to protect their firms from competition, and thereby gained unanticipated political and economic power. With the neutral perspective of an industry outsider, he describes the tumultuous events of the 1970s that shattered the status quo, and sparked the emergence of regulators as powerful mediators of conflicting interests. Finally, he analyzes the events leading to today's apparent abdication by regulators of much of their authority in favor of "market mechanisms." Anyone interested in the changing business environment in which sustainable energy must now compete will gain from reviewing Dr. Hirsh's readable and informative volume.
For more on Power Loss written by Richard Hirsh and published by MIT Press, see MIT Press the Table of Contents, or contact the author at richards@vt.edu.
Articles
Power Switch: Will the Restructured Electric Utility Help the Environment?
by Richard F. Hirsh and Adam H. Serchuk
from Environment Magazine, September 1999
copyright © 1999 Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation
Consumers across the United States are discovering that changes are underway in the electric power industry. What do these changes mean for the environment? Some fear that reduced regulatory oversight will lead to environmental abuses and a market dominated by the cheapest, dirtiest sources of electric power. Others, noting that traditional regulation has produced only grudging, token actions by electric utilities to protect the environment, hope that new technology will prove both cleaner and cheaper and that people will voluntarily buy "green" power generated from renewable resources. Which vision is valid? Read this paper and decide for yourself. HTML
More REPP Publications
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