New Jersey suffers from an “unnecessarily burdensome regulatory structure,” said...
New Jersey suffers from an “unnecessarily burdensome regulatory structure,” said Hesser McBride, chair of Wilentz, Goldman’s energy and telecommunications practice group. Competition has risen and erased the need for much past regulation, he wrote in a law article first published…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
in October’s New Jersey Lawyer Magazine and reposted with permission online at the law firm’s site this week (http://xrl.us/bnwws5). Bills from recent years, namely A-3766 and S-877, attempted to push deregulation while maintaining Lifeline and Linkup subsidy programs and consumer protections, he said. These bills argue that competition exists due to new services like wireless and VoIP. But consumer advocates killed the legislation, he said, despite what he called “sufficient” protections. The article questions whether this regulation is necessary due to recent changes to the telecom industry. “There is little doubt that eliminating the competitive disparity among providers and unnecessary utility-type regulatory requirements will benefit the industry and consumers,” McBride wrote after reviewing the state’s regulatory history. “In the interests of promoting competition and investment in the state, the Legislature may wish to reevaluate the benefits of implementing regulatory reform similar to that contemplated by A-3766."