From the liberal Toledo Blade:

COLUMBUS - Nine years after cheering the loudest for Ohio to end utility monopolies and enter an electricity market they promised would bring lower prices, the state’s biggest manufacturers like Daimler-Chrysler and General Electric want to shove as much of that genie as possible back into the bottle.

And, while it’s unclear how much Ohio can or will turn back the clock on electric deregulation, Gov. Ted Strickland wants to use the debate to also address renewable power like wind and solar, energy conservation, and advanced technologies for cleaner-burning coal and nuclear power.

Mr. Strickland is expected to begin the debate any day now as Ohio faces a deadline of Jan. 1, 2009, the date that, absent any legislative action, would send Ohio consumers into an electricity market where competition hasn’t developed. Rather than the promised bargains, consumers in other states like Maryland and Illinois who got to the market early found sticker shock.[…]

Mr. Strickland’s energy adviser, Mark Shanahan, whom the governor calls his “energy czar,” noted that rate-stabilization plans on which utilities like Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. are operating were supposed to buy Ohio time.

Crafted by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio after it became clear the competitive electricity marketplace envisioned had not materialized by 2005, these utility-specific plans largely maintained the status quo for three more years. The plans allowed utilities to continue to surcharge their customers for past investments in plants and technology while largely keeping electricity prices on a low simmer.

This energy re-regulation debate has very little to do with free market economics and everything to do with government foolishness.

After Gov. Taft signed electricity de-regulation into law, part of the deal was that investor-owned electric companies froze their rates for seven years. So no matter what happens to electricity in Ohio, the price will have to go up, simply to catch up with the cost of living increases and the hike in energy prices worldwide. With those sort of controls built into the de-regulation legislation, the law did not truly de-regulate the electric market, because it involved price controls and could do nothing about interstate transmission of electricity.

Sadly, the solution to this problem can not be found with Gov. Strickland or the Ohio legislature. Instead, the best, long-term solution would be to have the Federal Regulation and Oversight of Energy (FERC) bust down barriers to interstate transmission of electricity. Right now, First Energy and American Electric Power have regional transmission barriers to prevent the easy conveyance of kilowatts through their service territories, which stifles competition.

The federal government has been reluctant to knock these barriers to competition down, because utilities… along with manufactures… in other parts of the country don’t want to be hurt by competitors who would try to sell electricity in their service territory. The best example of this would be in Florida, where the state has a physical geographic barrier which electricity physically couldn’t pass, unless the federal government was to break down the government-supported monopoly on electricity transmission.

At this point, it is fair to say that re-reg has won the day in Ohio. The liberal MSM wants it to happen, and you would be hard pressed to find even the most conservative politicians in Ohio arguing for something that would, within six months, increase Ohio’s relatively low electric rates by roughly 25%.

Now, the battle in the Ohio legislature is simply to decide which brand of re-regulation will win: A brand that helps American Electric Power or helps First Energy. And, since Ohio and the federal government have no interest in moving towards more de-regulation and allowing for more interstate transmission of electricity, you, the consumer, will still lose.