Major Unbundling Victory

The NYPSC today issued an Order directing the expedited consideration of
"bottoms-up" rate unbundling by all of the state's major electric and gas
utilities. Enron has long pushed the PSC to address this issue. The PSC wants
unbundled rates in effect by the first half of 2002, and has set up a
two-stage process to get there. Under the first stage, which the PSC wants
completed and brought to them for decision by this August, major policy
issues of statewide import are to be considered. Resolution of these issues
will guide the actual embedded cost studies which each of the utilities are
directed to perform. These cost studies and the fully unbundled rates that
will flow from them, will then be reviewed in utility-specific cases. The PSC
expects the studies to be completed before the end of this year. I
anticipate that we will actively participate in this proceeding, which is
actually being spun off from the "end-state" proceeding, through our NESPA
coalition. A copy of the PSC's order should be available on their website:
www.dps.state.ny.us