Since the late 1980s, a number of electric utilities and interested non-utility parties (NUPs)-such as environmental groups, large industrial customers, and state government agencies-have tried a new approach to reaching agreement on program design and policy issues related to utility use of...

Discussions and decisions in states as diverse as California, Wisconsin, and Rhode Island are focusing on moving the United States electric industry from one dominated by vertically-integrated and highly regulated utility-based electricity monopolies to one characterized by largely divested and...