Lawmakers Call SEC on Carpet Over Utilities

Earlier, the SEC had tried -- but failed -- to reassure the lawmakers that it had the public's best interests at heart. Instead, the agency managed to stir up "a number of additional questions and concerns, some of them quite troubling" in the eyes of the two congressmen.

"We are especially pleased to receive the assurances in [SEC Chairman William] Donaldson's letter that 'the commission shares your goal of effectively administering the act, particularly in light of the crucial importance of our nation's utility industry to our economy and to national security,'" the pair wrote. "Unfortunately, in recent history, actual practice has rarely met that standard."

The American Public Power Association clearly agrees.

"The financial problems of many electric utilities and utility holding companies today can be traced directly to [the] partial repeal of PUHCA in 1992," the association stated. "What remained of PUHCA was bent, twisted or simply ignored by the SEC."