In 1997 and earlier electric utilities such as AEP were tightly regulated by the SCC. In that year, with expected forced Federal deregulation looming, Virginia's General Assembly began studying the process of deregulating the electric utility industry.
In 1999 after two years of study, and a couple of bills that were designed to pave the way for Federally forced deregulation, the General Assembly passed SB1269, the Electric Industry Restructuring Act. Designed to eventually permit all Virginia electricity customers to purchase generation service from the provider of their choice.
Senator Roscoe Reynolds, along with only Senators Marye, Puckett, and Trumbo, voted in favor of retaining the pre-1997 system of regulation.
Fast forward to 2007. Amid warnings from experts that Virginia's electric utility regulation structure was in danger of following along the same path recently experienced by California, Virginia's General Assembly passed SB 1416. This action reversed the effects of the 1999 bill and, with minor differences, took Virginia's electric utility regulation structure back to the pre-1997 system that Senator Reynolds unsuccessfully tried to retain just 8 years ago.
Once again Senator Reynolds, this time with only one other Senator, voted against changing Virginia's electric utility regulation structure.
To recap; Senator Reynolds voted against deregulation before he voted in favor of it. Both times he was in a ridiculously small minority. Has he been in the Party of Kerry so long that he is beginning to think and sound like him?
No comments:
Post a Comment