• Oil, Natural Gas, and Electric Deregulation



• Stopping the Nuclear Relapse



• Interactive Map of Proposed New Reactors



• The Case Against Nuclear Power



• The Case for Renewables and Efficiency



• Energy Legislation



• Press Room



• Congressional Voting Records



• Take Action!

PUHCA Repeal in H.R.6: Congress Prepares to Abandon Consumer & Investor Protections

The electricity titles of both the Senate and House energy bills would repeal America’s strongest protection for energy consumers, the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA). PUHCA was enacted during a time of widespread energy scandals three generations ago. Had the law not recently been filled with loopholes and had it been properly enforced, Enron and its ilk could never have hijacked consumers and shareholders. The ongoing scandals involving energy companies exempt from PUHCA’s strong protections prove the law should be strengthened – not repealed.

In exchange for repealing the entire Act, the Senate energy bill gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) limited merger review authority. The House bill does not include even this moderate provision.

Stop Energy Company Frauds! Demand that Congress Keep PUHCA!

• PUHCA maintains corporate transparency by limiting the geographic size and types of subsidiaries energy companies can operate. The law is necessary to help states regulate large, multi-state electricity companies by keeping their corporate structures transparent.

• As a result, PUHCA has kept the electric utility industry among the least concentrated in the American economy, ensuring that consumers are served by smaller, more accountable corporations.
• Legislative and regulatory loopholes enacted over the last decade have weakened the law’s effectiveness. For example, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the federal agency in charge of enforcing the law, granted Enron and other energy traders exemptions from PUHCA’s strong consumer and investor protections. That was wrong!
• The SEC has done a poor job enforcing the Act, approving mergers that are in violation of PUHCA’s rules. But a federal court has finally stepped in and demanded that the SEC explain itself, and has placed one of the mergers under review.
• The Senate bill suggests that the FERC – the federal regulators that brought us the California energy crisis – will be able to protect consumers in PUHCA’s absence. But even the General Accounting Office, in a recent review of FERC, concluded that the federal regulators can not even do their current job right, let alone handle any new ones.

Policy Recommendations

1. Strip PUHCA repeal provisions from H.R.6.
2. Maintain and strengthen the Senate provision for federal merger review authority.
3. Strengthen PUHCA: reevaluate the loophole created by Congress a decade ago to allow companies regulated by PUHCA to build unregulated power plants all over the country. These unregulated power plants undermined PUHCA’s effectiveness to protect consumers and shareholders.

Enforce PUHCA more vigorously: review recent FERC-approved mergers that some courts have found to be in violation of PUHCA and exemptions granted by SEC to energy traders like Enron.

more resources

Because Public Citizen does not accept funds from corporations, professional associations or government agencies, we can remain independent and follow the truth wherever it may lead. But that means we depend on the generosity of concerned citizens like you for the resources to fight on behalf of the public interest. If you would like to help us in our fight, click here.