FERC sticks with utility merger policy
- Details
-
21 Feb 2012
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday, Feb. 16, decided against revising its policies for reviewing utility mergers.
Since March 2011, FERC had been weighing whether to adopt merger guidelines created by antitrust regulators at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission a year earlier.
FERC was considering a change through a notice of inquiry process but had not proposed any specific changes. The NOI asked for public comment on whether to adopt the new DOJ and FTC changes.
FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said Thursday that switching to the antitrust guidelines, as they would have been applied to utility deals, meant a loosening of FERC’s merger rules. “We didn’t think it was appropriate to loosen them,” he said.
To view this article please sign in or subscribe. 30-day free trials are available, as well as affordable individual subscriptions and site licenses for larger institutions.
