Lieberman, Carnahan
Release GAO Report
Saying FERC Failed to Protect Energy Consumers
June 18,
2002
WASHINGTON – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission failed to
effectively police deregulated energy markets in Western states
to protect consumers from unreasonable rates, according to a
General Accounting Office (GAO) report released today by Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and
Senator Jean Carnahan (D-MO). By failing to update its
regulatory approach to keep up with the transition to
competitive energy systems, FERC gave Enron and other energy
companies greater latitude to take advantage of energy
customers.
Noting that the report said that the California energy crisis in
2000 and 2001 was FERC’s wake-up call, Lieberman said the crisis
“should not have only awakened FERC – it should have grabbed the
Commission by the neck and shook it up. But how many times did
FERC hit the snooze button before opening its eyes? It
shouldn’t have taken the nightmare of sky-high rates and rolling
blackouts to shake FERC out of its slumber.”
“FERC is responsible for ensuring that energy is available to
consumers at ‘just and reasonable’ prices,” Carnahan said. “All
the evidence suggested that FERC was failing the consumers of
California. This report suggests that all Americans are
vulnerable to another energy crisis like the one endured in
California.”
GAO’s report concluded that FERC “recognizes that the change
from highly regulated monopolies to competitive markets requires
it to fundamentally change how it does business.” However, it
has struggled to define its regulatory approach and lacks the
skilled personnel, computer capability, and organizational
structure to carry out that mission. Furthermore, FERC still
does not have a credible plan for monitoring energy markets, the
report said, and has still not even decided what information it
believes is crucial to its monitoring function. The full text
of the report can be found at:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02656.pdf
Lieberman and Carnahan requested the report in April 2001 after
FERC failed to ensure fair electricity prices during last year’s
California energy crisis. They noted today that FERC Chairman
Pat Wood acknowledged the agency’s shortcomings and earlier this
year established a new Office of Market Oversight and
Investigations, and pledged to ask GAO to monitor FERC’s efforts
to set up the new office and report back to them within a year. |