The U.S. utility experience: Is there life after mergers and downsizing?

Deregulation has pervaded the ranks of many different industries in the US. The electric utility industry, which has been often thought of as an untouchable industry to the likes of deregulation or reregulation, is undergoing a change from being considered a monopoly industry to one that is market-based. The electric utility industry is undergoing deregulation, or perhaps it is more fitting to say re-regulation since some regulation will remain, for much the same reasons that many other industries before it have. These reasons include major shifts in the nation's economy and the resultant need for more competitive pricing. Impending re-regulation of the industry is having several ripple effects on the energy industry as a whole, particularly in the area of merger activity and also with respect to reengineering, which more often than not includes a degree of downsizing, or if you prefer, reducing the workforce. And, yes, despite the fact that these truly are difficult and trying times, there is life after mergers and downsizing albeit a different kind of life. Certainly it is the case that the industry will not just come to a halt because restructuring activities are under way