"Values, Regulation, and Technology in the American ElectricUtility Industry, 1973 to 1988."

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Dr. Hirsh is analyzing the changes in values and motivations that contributed in recent years to the restructuring of the American electric utility industry. Taking an historical and humanistic perspective, he is paying particular attention to evolving attitudes of individuals in the regulatory community--attitudes that have been forced to change due to a variety of influences. Technological change has been one of these influences, though it has been poorly understood. As technology used in the industry began stagnating in the 1960s and 1970s, ending an 80 year trend of continuous improvement and declining unit costs, regulators started questioning the rationale for the utility industry's status as a "natural monopoly." At the same time, regulators' values and perceptions were influenced by novel economic theories and passage in 1978 of new legislation that stimulated technological innovation for use by non-utility generators. The questioning by regulators of whether regulated natural electric utility monopolies were still "in the public interest" has recently been translated into partial deregulation of the industry. Additionally, this work will address the issue of how regulators' new values have been converted into novel incentives for technological innovation and how these incentives contribute to a restructuring movement that will continue into the 1990s and beyond. Dr. Hirsh's aim is to produce a study detailing the social, intellectual, and technical origins of a restructured utility industry. The work will transcend political and economic discussions and provide original perspectives to historians of technology, industry managers and public policy makers. It will also serve an immediate need of managers and policy analysts by offering a better understanding of participants' motivations as a vital industry undergoes wrenching changes.