Senior Economists Stuart Gurrea and Manny Macatangay publish article on the economic effects of the filed rate doctrine.

Stuart Gurrea and Manny Macatangay, Senior Economists in the California office of EI, have published “The Economic Effects of the Filed Rate Doctrine on Wholesale Electricity Markets” in the Spring 2005 issue of The Energy Antitrust News, a publication of the Fuel and Energy Industry Committee of the Section of Antitrust Law, American Bar Association. Dr. Gurrea and Dr. Macatangay explain that, with the adoption of market-based reforms in wholesale electricity markets, rate filing no longer amounts to an ex ante evaluation of the reasonableness of the rate in relation to the utility’s costs. They discuss how utilities have continued to invoke the filed rate doctrine as a protection against attempts by courts or state regulators to enforce rates other than those approved by FERC. They show that the continued application of the filed rate doctrine in restructured electricity markets could undermine competition policy goals and the development of electricity market structures, that the doctrine eliminates many of the institutions and incentives that keep non-regulated markets competitive, and that this could lead to prices above competitive levels without consumer redress.