Power Leaders to Dissect Ohio's New Energy Law SB 221 -- Live Audio Event, Audio CD and On-demand Audio, July 9, 2008, 12:00 - 1:30 EDT

Columbus, Ohio (PRWEB) June 26, 2008 -- Are you going to market energy in Ohio or are you there already? The new marketing measure in the Buckeye state is called SB 221. It was signed into law by Gov Ted Strickland May 1.

It's not clear yet whether customers will be able to pick a competitive supplier. The PUC is to decide that. Some of the key safeguards recommended by the Office of Consumer's Council didn't make it into the final bill.

One thing that did get into the final bill is that by 2025, 25% of the electricity in Ohio is to be generated from alternative energy sources such as clean coal, nuclear, fuel cells and cogeneration. While the law is clear that markets are to continue to operate, the PUC has a chance to keep it from working.

Join Restructuring Today, your colleagues and this panel on July 9 from noon to 1:30 pm EDT for an in-depth look at the law and what it means for the future of competitive energy markets:

? DAVID FEIN is the vice president of Midwest energy policy for CONSTELLATION ENERGY and he's looking forward to supporting competitive markets through SB 221. He's responsible for directing Constellation's regulatory and legislative activities for its retail, power generation and development, wholesale and global commodities businesses in Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. He manages state-level advocacy and interactions with the MISO and FERC. Fein has over 15 years experience in all facets of the energy industry. He is a founding member of the Alliance for Real Energy Options and was actively involved in the legislative debates surrounding the recent adoption of SB 221 in Ohio. Fein's experience in government and regulatory affairs includes active involvement with the 1997 electric deregulation debates before the Illinois General Assembly that resulted in the enactment of the Electric Service Customer Choice and Rate Relief Act of 1997. He has testified before the Illinois Commerce Commission and Illinois General Assembly on policy matters related to energy and telecommunications issues.

? JANINE MIGDEN-OSTRANDER oversees the OHIO CONSUMERS' COUNSEL and she wants Ohio's 4.5 million residential households to get the lowest energy costs possible through SB 221. Migden-Ostrander has championed a variety of energy and telecom policies including integrated portfolio management, alternative sources of energy, energy efficiency programs and innovative rate designs in the energy industry to the delivery of broadband services and other technologies to rural and urban customers. She has also made it an agency priority to find solutions for the growing number of customers who struggle with affordability of utility services. She is intent on addressing ways to improve traditional avenues of advocacy and outreach and education programming as well as setting policy ground rules to increase the effectiveness of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel in regulatory hearings.

? LEIGH HERINGTON is the executive director of the NORTHEAST OHIO PUBLIC ENERGY COUNCIL, a council of 128 member communities, large and small, spread across nine Northeast Ohio counties with more than 420,000 residential and small business electric customers and about 250,000 natural gas customers. NOPEC is the largest public energy aggregation in the US. Herrington favors governmental aggregation and believes it will promote competition and provide consumer-buying pools in which residential and small business customers can negotiate lower price through group purchases of energy. Herington is also a founding partner of Christley, Herington and Pierce and had served for eight years in the Ohio Senate.

? MICHAEL KURTZ is an attorney with BOEHN, KURTZ & LOWRY and he speaks for Ohio's industrial users including the Kentucky Industrial energy group and the Ohio Energy Group. Kurtz has practiced electric utility law exclusively since 1986 and represented clients at 14 state commissions and the FERC. He has won major cases against electric utilities in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and Kentucky Supreme Court. Kurtz has represented large industrial and commercial customers in deregulation/electric restructuring cases involving Cincinnati Gas & Electric, Dayton Power & Light, Columbus Southern, Ohio Power, Ohio Edison Company, Cleveland Electric Illuminating, Toledo Edison, West Penn Power, Potomac Edison, Entergy Texas, Detroit Edison, Consumers Power, Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp Oregon.

? JOHN FINNIGAN is the vice president of government and regulatory affairs for DUKE ENERGY OHIO and Kentucky where he is responsible for managing state and local government and administrative agency relationships in those states. Finnigan has managed Duke Energy Ohio's lobbying activities related to SB 221 and he has participated in planning for Duke's implementation of the measure. He joined the Duke's legal department in 1996 and was the associate general counsel responsible for regulatory matters related to public utility electric and natural gas services in Ohio and Kentucky.

For details and ways to register, please visit: http://www.restructuringtoday.com/ohiolaw-prweb

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