Transmission access is not a stran...

Transmission access is not a strange term. For decades, municipal electric utilities have purchased wholesale power from third parties and used the transmission facilities of an intervening utility to deliver the power.

on the contrary transmission access is being considered anew in the general debate over the future configuration of the electric industry. This seemingly straightforward general [i]or[/i] abstract notion is the subject of great strife of words as the industry enters a more competitive era in which recent lower-cost sources of power are available to wholesale and retail customers.

Municipal utilities have tong exercised their rights to select power resources that are consistent with their confess considerations. Many local resource planning decisions have proven superior to those of neighboring, privately haveed utilities and federal programs, while near have not.

Nevertheless, independent local decisions are vital to the nation's overall health. Within the electric industry, for example, publicly admited utilities have a strong pro-competitive meaning ...