Energy Antitrust Handbook

The Energy Antitrust Handbook presents a guide to an industry of increasing importance to the U.S. economy. The Handbook is designed to assist energy, regulatory, and antitrust lawyers in understanding the multilayered complexity of this field. Historically, energy has been at the center of the development of the antitrust laws. The oil industry, for example, has been the source of many seminal antitrust cases, while the electric and natural gas industries were considered to be the province of regulation. However, competition began to enter these two industries and develop particularly in the late 1980s and 1990s. This book provides a basic background of the history and economic structure of electricity and gas and the applicable regulatory structure. In addition, it explains the application of antitrust laws to these industries both by the courts and the agencies, particularly the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The Energy Antitrust Handbook also offers insight on how the past may be a prologue for issues that are currently in flux and reflects the greater attention being given to electricity issues by the courts and federal agencies.
Lawyers familiar with antitrust will gain an understanding of gas and electricity product issues, the market structure, and the unique application of the antitrust laws to these industries. Lawyers and executives familiar with these industries but not with antitrust law will find this book provides both basic as well as pervasive coverage of the antitrust laws applicable to energy.