ABSTRACT
The electric industry in the U.S. presents an excellent case study of government regulation. Like other network industries such as natural gas, telephone, and railroad, electricity regulation was based on the central political-economic idea that certain industries had natural monopoly characteristics and that the goods they provided were in the public interest (Tomain, 2000). Further, like all government regulation, the regulation of the electricity industry has embedded within it a deep tension between a preference for government and a preference for markets as the favored tool for social ordering. This tension is present today as the industry experiences a significant restructuring.
