Bal Harbour, FL
There continues to be a rapid move toward legislatively mandated deregulation of the electric utility industry. This trend, combined with emerging international environmental commitments related to global climate change, threaten the hundreds of thousands of union jobs that depend on the stability of the electric utility industry while shifting costs to smaller scale consumers. Claims of universal benefit associated with fully open competition for electricity supply are exaggerated and not well founded.
The U.S. electric utility industry employs directly and indirectly more than half a million workers and is a critical component of our national economy. An immediate transition to a deregulated industry will result in the write-off of billions of dollars of assets now on the utility companiest books, creating an enormous burden of stranded costs for utilities that will cause further pressure for unreasonable downsizing of work forces thereby threatening safety and reliability of the nationts electric supply system.
Radical deregulation of the electric industry will result in significant job loss within the industry and in related industries and will cause an increase in electricity rates particularly for residential consumers. Deregulation will also jeopardize the environmental progress achieved through energy efficiency and demand side management programs, and reasonable diversity in primary fuel choice for power generation. Diversity of primary fuels and utilizing the nationts most abundant resources along with beneficial environmental technologies has kept America the leader among global competitors.
The AFL-CIO encourages Congress and state regulatory authorities to proceed cautiously on electric utility deregulation and ensure that deregulation efforts do not destablize the industry, threaten workerst jobs and dramatically increase residential electricity rates. Similarly, efforts to address global climate change must not threaten U.S. jobs and harm the competitiveness of U.S. industry.