Pete Domenici: “My objection to the Bingaman amendment is very simple. He alludes to last year and what happened with amendments such as…”

“My objection to the Bingaman amendment is very simple. He alludes to last year and what happened with amendments such as his last year. There was no alternative last year. There is an alternative this year. It is the underlying electricity bill, which clearly protects the citizens, the users, and all of those concerns about mergers. The merger review in our section is supported by groups such as the National Rural Co-ops, the rural power people, and many others. If, in fact, we did not have protection in this area with reference to gobbling by merger, obviously they would not be for this underlying bill. So I oppose this amendment because we do not have to expand FERC's merger authority.”