The Regulation of Trade in Electricity: A Canadian Perspective
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Description
In this chapter we attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of trade in electricity and its regulation from a Canadian perspective. We are grateful for comments and criticisms on an earlier draft of this paper by participants in the University of Toronto Electric Power Project, as well as Michal Gal. Section I describes the technical and economic basis of trade in electricity in the North American context. Section II examines the existing domestic regulatory framework for international trade in electricity in both the United States and Canada, at both the federal and state levels. The international legal framework for trade in electricity between Canada and the United States is considered in Section III, with reference to both GATT/WTO and NAFTA. This part of the chapter reviews the consistency of existing domestic regulation of electricity trade with GATT/WTO and NAFTA rules, and also speculates on the manner in which these rules will affect trade in electricity under circumstances where at least some jurisdictions in North America have moved substantially towards either wholesale and/or retail competition. Section IV considers trade in electricity within Canada across provincial borders, and discusses the constitutional rules affecting such trade and its regulation. The issue of the role of the federal government in assuring an integrated market in electricity is addressed, and some of the implications of pro-competitive regulatory reform for interprovincial trade are also outlined. Finally, in Section V we attempt to provide a comparative perspective on trade in electricity in North America by briefly examining trade in electricity and its regulation within the European Union, including the progress of efforts to create a single European electricity market.
Source Publication
Ontario Hydro at the Millennium: Has Monopoly's Moment Passed?
Source Editors/Authors
Ronald J. Daniels
Publication Date
1996
Recommended Citation
Howse, Robert L. and Heckman, Gerald, "The Regulation of Trade in Electricity: A Canadian Perspective" (1996). Faculty Chapters. 891.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/891
