"David Littell, Principal, Regulatory Assistance Project, a highly regarded expert in energy regulatory policies across New England provides us with a clear understanding of why innovtive thinking is needed now: "Existing regulatory processes were designed for the different purposes of the 20th century system and won't work in the rapidly transforming 21st century."

Where are you getting your David Littell quote from, Richard? In 2018, Littell correctly identified the principal reason nuclear plants are being replaced with gas - self-dealing utilities are forcing ratepayers to pay for gas at prices they set themselves:

"The separation of local gas distribution companies (LDCs) from their interstate pipeline-owning affiliates—and indeed from electric generation-owning affiliates and gas pipeline and distribution companies—has not been a focal point of regulation."

When Utility Gas Affiliates Play by Monopoly Rules, Consumers Are Likely to Lose

Littell is apparently unaware self-dealing was a focal point of regulation for seventy years - a problem already solved. Here, he does nothing other than advocate a return to pre-2005 regulation, when electric generation-owning affiliates and gas pipeline and distribution companies were forbidden from doing business which each other.

"But the question of these 'codes of conduct' is increasingly important, and given the gaps in state-level rulemaking, may be an area where federal regulators need to step in."

Or maybe federal regulators should never have been kicked out in 2005. That was when energy holding companies, with the blessing of a renewables lobby bought off with subsidies tacked on to EPACT2005, eliminated federal oversight by the SEC. For seventy years the pesky Securities and Exchange Commission had the resources and the teeth to prevent self-dealing - but now holding companies were free to run up customers' bills to their hearts' content. And neither FERC, nor state utility commissions under the thumb of local gas companies, could do a thing about it.

Before 2005 I had reliable electricity at low prices. Now, with service becoming less reliable and more expensive, this "energy transition" may end up looking more like a regulation revival. Or will middlemen from Big Gas and Big Renewables continue to be rewarded an expanding slice of the electricity pie for making access to electricity worse?