Current and Recent Projects

Regulating Mergers and Acquisitions of U.S. Electric Utilities: Industry Concentration and Corporate Complication

What happens when electric utility monopolies pursue their acquisition interests—undisciplined by competition, and insufficiently disciplined by the regulators responsible for replicating competition? Since the mid-1980s, mergers and acquisitions of U.S. electric utilities have halved the number of local, independent utilities. Mostly debt-financed, these transactions have converted retiree-suitable investments into subsidiaries of geographically scattered conglomerates.

Regulating Cigarette Manufacturers: Hempling Expert Report

I have filed an expert report for the State of Maryland in its $150 million arbitration with major cigarette manufacturers. These manufacturers are known as “Participating Manufacturers” (PMs) because they signed the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (“MSA”) between themselves and most states. The MSA resolved multiple disagreements about the role tobacco has played in raising state health care costs.

Marrying Federal Power Act law with cost-effective environmental objectives

I will be producing a series of papers and presentations on how demand-side management, regional transmission planning, distributed generation, rate design, renewable energy, ancillary services, and related topics fit within FERC's FPA responsibilities.

The work is funded through a grant by the Hewlett Foundation and the Energy Foundation to The Sustainable FERC Project.

Central America: Multi-national power supply planning with renewable energy emphasis

I am advising utility regulators in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama on ways to use regional integrated resource planning to achieve cost-effective mixes of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Central America. The U.S. State Department is funding this effort with $1.2 million in grants to the Institute of the Americas (IOA).

Utility Holding Company Mergers: Are There Risks to Ratepayers?

Exelon, a holding company owning Commonwealth Edison (Illinois), Philadelphia Electric (Pennsylvania), and a host of non-utility affiliates, has proposed to acquire Constellation Energy Group, Inc., a holding company that owns Baltimore Gas & Electric and many other non-utility businesses.

I have filed testimony about the transaction, on behalf of the State of Maryland and the Maryland Energy Administration. Here's an excerpt: