MISSION: Southwest Research and Information Center is a multi-cultural organization working to promote the health of people and communities, protect natural resources, ensure citizen participation, and secure environmental and social justice now and for future generations

RESOURCES

We gratefully acknowledge Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy Project for contributing both written material and financial support for this feature article.

The Critical Mass Energy Project's Web site
www.citizen.org/cmep/restructuring/
is an excellent starting point for information on utility deregulation. (Other CMEP projects include energy mergers, energy votes, food irradiation, nuclear safety and waste, radioactive recycling, renewables, and the RAGE Campaign - see separate entry). Numerous in-depth reports can be read and downloaded; news releases about legislation and comments by Public Citizen (e.g., on the Clinton administration bill and Virginia's dereg. bill); anti-consumer legislation; green marketing and advertising. Fact sheets, including a "PUHCA Primer" (The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935) and why it shouldn't be repealed. The home page has links to several other organizations working on issues related to deregulation, as well as government information resources. Extensive list of publications on deregulation, renewable energy and policy, and energy efficiency, among other CMEP project topics.

The federal government's Energy Information Administration Web site
(www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/page/restructure)
has substantial material on electric restructuring (DOE's preferred term), with monthly status of states' activity, industry developments, "selected issues," "performance issues," legislation pending, and more. States' restructuring status is shown in map or chart form, price forecasts, and a publications list including "a capsule of issues and events," informative though predictably pro-deregulation.

American Local Power Project www.local.org/
"A national network of communities facing industry deregulation." Website offers links to RAGE and Cape and Islands Self-Reliance, essays by noted policy analysts on green marketing and community choice, stranded investments and the electric utility industry, with links to those topics. Also fact sheets, American Local Power News, information on legislation, contacts for elected officials. Invaluable for links, by states, to local and state government and officials, local organizations, public interest groups, energy/utility information, public and cooperative power. Contact: Paul Fenn (paulfenn@local.org), 1615 Broadway, Suite 1005, Oakland, CA 94612; 510/451-1727; fax: 510/451-1728.

American Wind Energy Association
www.awea.org
Websites have information on wind as an energy resource, restructuring and its relevance to wind, with wind fact sheets, membership information, wind energy projects and links, technical information, publications, and the usual press releases and events notices. A definitive study of the renewable portfolio standards by renewable energy analyst Nancy Rader was completed for AWEA in 1997; it appears on their Website in full. Includes links to AWEA member companies (wind energy suppliers and products). Downloadable pdf files. Also The Mechanics of a Renewables Portfolio Standard Applied at the Federal Level, by Nancy Rader. Washington, D.C.: American Wind Energy Association. September 1997.

Pennsylvania Environmental Network (PEN) www.penweb.org/issues/energy/ PEN's project on green energy - four-part series on "green energy marketing" includes fact sheets and discussions of false marketing practices and information about its boycott of Green Mountain Energy Resources. Major focus is on Pennsylvania restructuring and energy issues, with broader applications of information about biomass, green marketing. PEN's homepage has links to material on Y2K as well as Pennsylvania's nuclear plants, among other issues. Contact: Mike Ewell, (catalyst@envirolink.org); 215/743-4884.

Environmental Impacts of Deregulation Dammed Deregulation: How Deregulation of the Electric Power Industry Could Affect the Nation's Rivers,
by Charlie Higley, for Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy Project, June 1999. (18 pages, with notes). Senior policy analyst Charlie Higley examines the probable impacts of deregulation on the nation's more than 2,300 hydroelectric dams, which may include a proliferation of new dams, weakening of environmental regulations and oversight, abandonment of some older dams in a shifting market with environmental consequences, and an assault on Canada's rivers as a wide-open unregulated market for new dams. The report outlines current regulation and oversight and environmental effects of hydropower (which produces only about 10 percent of the nation's electricity). Recommendations include prohibiting energy marketers from selling hydropower as "green" energy; not designating hydropower as a source of renewable energy in deregulation legislation; maintaining current environmental standards and imposing new ones to protect river habitats; labeling sources of electricity to inform customers, and including protection for Canada's rivers in deregulation legislation. Well-written and lucid, the report is highly accessible to general readers, offering an excellent overview of dams and hydropower, their increased building following the 1970s "energy crisis," and the environmental consequences of their management. ($10.00 by calling Public Citizen's publication department at 202/588-7780, or view (online at www.citizen.org/cmep/restructuring/damfinal.htm). For more information link to the American Rivers Website: www.amrivers.org, American Rivers, Climate Change and Hydropower: Fact vs. Fiction, Washington, D.C, May 1998. Also Natural Resources Council of Maine: www.nrcm.org.

"Green Energy" Marketing Green Buyers Beware: A Critical Review of "Green Electricity" Products,
by Nancy Rader, for Public Citizen, October 1998 (52 pages). Renewable energy policy analyst Nancy Rader offers a comprehensive analysis of current "green" marketing approaches by companies jockeying for customer share after California's deregulation. The detailed report examines the "products" or so-called sources of renewables being claimed by major suppliers like Pacific Gas and Electric, Edison, Enron, cleen 'n green, and others and shows their claims are misleading or false (often there are no actual sources to back up promises to deliver green power, and customers often are already paying for the tiny portion of renewables they are being promised). Rader demonstrates that the practice won't help to diversify energy sources in the U.S. or contribute to development of renewables. (The report was criticized by NRDC, EDF, Sierra Club, Global Green, and CEERT, Public Citizen responded by urging the groups to "(1) demand legitimate products from all green marketers now, rather than rely on the hope that they will materialize later, (2) tone down the free-market rhetoric and green marketing hype which falsely implies that green marketing will lead to a sustainable energy future, and (3) develop grassroots campaigns to mobilize citizens in support of the strong policies that are critically needed to address climate change and other environmental ills.") $23.50 non-corporate; $107.50 corporate, including shipping and handling. Write to: Public Citizen Critical Mass Energy Project, 1600 20th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20009, or call 800/289-3787. The report can also be viewed on the Web at www.citizen.org/cmep.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory www.nrel.gov/ The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory Website has links to their latest projects (solar, biomass, geothermal, hydro, wind, "biofuels," hydrogen), with fact sheets of renewables projects in 12 states; press releases, events calendar. Especially useful is the access to its database of project technical information and its substantial photoarchive. "Clean Energy 101" gives the basics on renewables. Also glossaries of solar power and renewable energy terms. An excellent basic resource, if one keeps in mind NREL's optimistic slant. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 1617 Cole Blvd., Golden, CO 80401-3393.

Nuclear Information and Resource Service www.nirs.org NIRS is the information and networking center for citizens and environmental organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation, and sustainable energy issues. Deregulation and nuclear power plants is discussed at www.nirs.org/FCTSHTDECOMTAX.htm. Contact: Paul Gunter (nirsnet@nirs.org); NIRS, 1424 16th Street N.W., #404, Washington, DC 20036; 202/328-M2; fax: 202/462-2183.

Sustainable Minnesota's Electric Energy www.me3.org/projects/dereg/ The Institute for Local Self Reliance developed and continues to maintain the Sustainable Minnesota Web site, home page of Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ME³), a coalition of organizations working for a sustainable energy future. This comprehensive site focuses on a broad range of energy issues including biomass, climate change, ecological tax reform, electric restructuring and renewable energy technologies. The focus is on policies that have a potential impact on Minnesota but the site offers links to thousands of non-Minnesota resources as well.

Cape & Islands Self-Reliance Corporation www.reliance.org Contact: Matthew Patrick (reliance@reliance.org), P.O.. Box 3203, Waquoit, MA 02536-3203; toll-free in Massachusetts: 888/808-0120. This group spearheaded community choice, or aggregate energy purchasing, in Massachusetts and has created a model for other states. Web site describes their efforts (see "Community Choice in Electricity Deregulation: Lessons Learned in Massachusetts") Also, useful fact sheets on dereg., community choice (municipal aggregation), stranded costs, and the Cape Light Compact; current news related to Massachusetts and other states. Links to electricity deregulation issues, news, "kitchen table" for consumers, "town hall" for municipal officials, and "business page" for business owners. The organization's aim is community self-reliance in energy, water, and food. "Through research, education and direct services, Self-Reliance enables ordinary households, small businesses and towns to use natural resources efficiently, reduce pollution and save money." Also links to Self-Reliance's American Local Power Project.

RAGE www.citizen.org/cmep/RAGE/index.html
Home page defines electricity deregulation, bailouts, impacts to service, pollution, threats to renewable development by "greenwashing." Links to five downloadable newsletters and to the CMEP home page. The latest newsletter reviews current pending deregulation legislation and the importance for community choice provisions. RAGE is working to build support in the Senate for H.R. 2734, the 'Community Choice for Electricity Act.' Contact Korey Hartwich, Public Citizen (202/454-5123).

Renewable Energy Alliance www.realliance.org
Comprises AllEnergy Marketing Company, Edison Source, Enron Corp, Foresight Energy Company, Green Mountain Energy Resources, PacifiCorp, and PG&E Energy Services.

American Public Power Association
www.APPAnet.org
2301 M St., N.W., Washington, DC 20037-1484; 202/467-2952; fax 202/467-2910. APPA is the trade association for 2,000 municipal and other state and local government-owned electric utilities. APPA advances the principles of "community ownership, promoting the development of a viable and sustainable competitive wholesale power market, and protecting the public interest against the abuse of market power." Web site offers press releases, public power issue updates and policy briefs, utility industry information, scheduled events, Y2K materials, publications list. Exploring the site offers a good look at what public electric power actually is.

Profile of Power: A History of the People and Events That Have Shaped and Continue to Shape America's Most Critical Industry,
by Scott Ridley (American Public Power Association, 1996, 66 pp.).

Season of Change: A Profile of Power - Update on the History of the Electric Utility Industry, by Scott Ridley (APPA, 1999, 32 pp.). APPA Catalog #95OU99 ($2.00 for members, $3.00 non-members, n/a to utility industry; discount for quantities)

Profile of Power describes the evolution of the present-day electric utility industry over 120 years. Scott Ridley's fascinating account moves from Thomas Edison and the earliest municipal power systems through the build-up of monopolies, rate wars and tactics of holding companies, the effects of the stock market and two wars, federal energy policy and on up through California's bitterly contested legislative reform. The report is also a profile of the public power system. The immense changes to the industry that have been occurring since 1996 demanded an update. Season of Change, a supplement to the more extensive and comprehensive Profile of Power, focuses on the changes in the industry structure from mid-1996 through late 1998 and the state and federal actions that have helped to bring it about. Ridley discusses actions in specific states (California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania), regulatory changes, mergers and their possible effects on infrastructure and delivery, and the outlook for publicly owned utilities. Ridley, a longtime energy policy analyst and journalists also co-authored Power Struggle: The Hundred-Year War Over Electricity (Harper & Row, 1986).

The Last Energy War:
A People's History of Electric Deregulation,
by Harvey Wasserman (Seven Stories Press, 1999). Wasserman's forthcoming book looks at the rise to power of a greedy industry and the costs exacted from consumers, the environment, and the future of renewable energy. Wasserman tells how the industry has promoted nuclear and suppressed development of solar energy and other renewables beneficial to the environment. Six fast-paced chapters with often entertainingly caustic observations, and an insider's view of California's restructuring battle. Available from Seven Stories Press, 140 Watts St., New York, NY 10013; www.sevenstories.com.

OTHER RESOURCES

Union of Concerned Scientists www.ucsusa.org (see for RPS info)

Green-e www.green-e.org
(information for power providers)

Natural Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org/

The Right-To-Know Network www.rtknet.org
(a gateway to EPA databases)
Federal Trade Commission www.ftc.gov/bcp/gmrule/guides92.htm
("Guides For the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims")

NEW MEXICO CONTACTS

Members of
The Coalition for
Clean Affordable Energy:

Southwest Research and Information Center
(SRIC)
www.sric.org
Contact: Paul Robinson or Lynda Taylor
505/262-1862; fax: 505/262-1864

www.lawfund.org
Contact: John Nielson
303/444-1188; fax: 303/786-8054
N.M. Citizens for Clean Air and Water
Contact: John Bartlit
505/672-9792; fax: 505/672-0831
N.M. Conservation Voters Alliance
Contact: Kaija Johnson
505/262-1862; fax: 505/262-1864
New Mexico Public Interest Research Group (NMPIRG)
Contact: Jeanne Bassett, executive dir.
505/254-1244; fax: 505/254-2280
e-mail: nmpirgl23@aol.com;
or Jennifer Taylor, energy program associate,
e-mail: jtnmpirg@aol.com
New Mexico Solar Energy Association
Contact: Charles Bensinger
505/989-4750
Sierra Club, New Mexico Chapter
Contact: John Buscher
505/820-0201;
e-mail: sierranm@ni.net