Coming of Age in the Infrastructure

Abstract

Judge Cudahy’s involvement in the infrastructure industries began in the late 1950s, a tranquil time for this business when it was rife with government regulation. The struggle of industrial customers for lower power rates, together with the energy crisis of the 1970s, put these industries on the path to deregulation and competition which continue to mark these industries to this day. The sudden rise in fuel costs surprised many experts by showing that power is an elastic resource despite many saying that people would not sacrifice modern convenience in the face of sharply-rising costs. Nuclear energy had seemed to be the wave of the future and there were plans for “power parks”, clusters of nuclear plants in out-of-the-way areas, to power the entire nation. These designs, which required heavy regulation, never approached fruition. Instead, big industrial customers pushed for competition between generating plants which “stranded” projects for high-cost generators such as nuclear plants. Presumably deregulation and competition will lead to sales on the basis of marginal cost.