Texas alternatives : competitive and regulatory options in telecommunications and electric power : a roadmap for meeting new challenges : a report to the 74th Legislature / by the Joint Interim Committee on Telecommunications, Joint Interim Committee on the Public Utility Commission, and the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission.
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Texas. Legislature. Joint Interim Committee on Telecommunications.
Texas. Public Utility Commission.
Texas. Sunset Advisory Commission.
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This report is the product of a great amount of time,
quo is not much of a hurdle in the path of change—and effort, and study, not only of the legislators assigned to
today, change may be found throughout the electric and the two committees and their staff, but also of an
telecommunications utilities industries. In recognition of impressive number of people who spent untold hours in
these changes, Lt. Governor Bob Bullock and House this endeavor. Included were representatives of the
var-Speaker Pete Laney created two committees to review ious utilities and related industries, and a number of
the Public Utility Commission and telecommunications, others representing a variety of relevant interests.
and to provide recommendations to the 74th Legislature.
This report includes basic background material covering
the committees, their efforts and the reasons for
The Public Utility Regulatory Act (PURA), is the creating our committees; describes the process followed
body of regulations defining the governing latitude and by the committee in seeking to fulfill the committee
limits of the Public Utility Commission (PUC). PURA charges; discusses many of the issues encountered and
was adopted in 1975 to provide consumers with those studied by the committee; and finally, provides the
protections and safeguards normally provided through committees' initial and tentative recommendations for
the forces of competition. addressing those issues.
Initial recommendations made in this report do not
represent the end of the committees' work. Decisions
made by these committees still must be translated into
legislative language.
Subject matter in our report is presented in three
basic chapters. The first chapter primarily covers structural
issues—those relating to the organizational structure,
procedures, staffing of the PUC, and the common
issues—those regulatory provisions which impact
upon both electric utilities and telecommunications
entities.
The second chapter is devoted to the electric utility
industry. The chapter includes a more thorough exploration
and description of current pressures for change in
that industry. We then report our conceptual recommendations
related to a variety of issues affecting this
industry.
The last chapter includes our attempt to describe the
major changes taking place in telecommunications, and
our recommendations for responding to those changes.
Here, technological innovation is the major factor responsible
for the growing inadequacies of our regulatory
laws.