Contacts

This report was prepared by the staff of the Energy Information Administration and Gregory Kuserk of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. General questions regarding the report may be directed to the project leader, Douglas R. Hale. Specific questions should be directed to the following analysts:

Summary, Chapters 1, 3, and 5
(Prices and Electricity)
Douglas R. Hale
 (202/287-1723, Douglas.R.Hale@eia.doe.gov)

Chapter 2
Thomas Lee
 (202.586.0829, Thomas.Lee@eia.doe.gov)
John Zyren
 (202.586.6405, John.Zyren@eia.doe.gov)

Chapter 4
James Joosten
 (202.287.1918, James.Joosten@eia.doe.gov)

Chapter 6
Gregory Kuserk
 (202.418.5286, gkuserk@cftc.gov)

Chapters 5 (Accounting) and 7
Jon Rasmussen
 (202.586.1449, Jon.Rasmussen@eia.doe.gov)

Chapter 8
James Hewlett
 (202.586.9536, James.Hewlett@eia.doe.gov)

Other contributors to the report include Preston McDowney, Lawrence Stroud, and Cathy Smith.

The Energy Information Administration would like to acknowledge the indispensible help of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the research and writing of this report. EIA’s special expertise is in energy, not financial markets. The Commission assigned one of its senior economists, Gregory Kuserk, to this project. He not only wrote sections of the report and provided data, he also provided the invaluable professional judgment and perspective that can only be gained from long experience. The EIA staff appreciated his exceptional productivity, flexibility, and good humor. Without the support of the CFTC, EIA would not have been able to write this report.

The authors would like to acknowledge the contribution of three independent expert reviewers. Dr. Hendrik Bessembinder, University of Utah, Department of Finance, and Dr. Alexander J. Triantis, University of Maryland, Department of Finance, contributed to framing the research plan and reviewed two early versions of the report. Dr. Bessembinder also contributed two of the report’s examples of the benefits of hedging and swaps. Dr. Bala Dharan, Rice University, Graduate School of Management, carefully reviewed all the accounting material in the report. Dr. Dharan also contributed to the analyses of questionable uses of derivatives that appear in Chapters 5 and 7. In addition, Tracy Terry, National Commission on Energy Policy, and Russell Tucker, Edison Electric Institute, provided exceptionally helpful reviews of drafts of Chapter 4.