IEEE Fort Worth Section Newsletter

SIGNALS November 1996

Contents

The Electric Industry in Texas -- An opinion of Jarrell Gibbs, Vice Chairman of Texas Utilities Companies on the prospect of utility deregulation in this state.

Number Please… Internet Calling…; -- Using the Internet as your "long distance carrier?"

Action Alert: '97 is the Year for Portable Pensions -- Several recent initiatives from Congress and the Administration raise hopes that Portable Pensions might become a reality - how you can make a difference in this effort.

Legislative Update -- Internet Initiatives, '97 budget, NASA "base closings," and government actions on the "Year 2000 Problem"

Inside IEEE -- News Bytes on IEEE-USA actions and conferences, new products, and Standards on the Web.

Section Activities - Call for authors, Job Fair, Anniversaries, Brainbuster

by H. Jarrell Gibbs, Vice Chairman, Texas Utilities Companies

There is much discussion today regarding the future of the electric utility industry. Change has been and is occurring. The appropriate debate for the future seems to center around two important questions:

1. How much more change?
2. What should the time frame be?

In a scenario where crisis conditions exist, rapid and extreme change is often necessary to restore some degree of equilibrium. These crisis situations generally result in pain and suffering for those involved. For example:

• In California and the New England states, the flight of industry which provides the economic base for existence has created a demand for "immediate" and extreme change in those states' electric industry.

On the other hand, where there is not crisis, change can be orderly, deliberate, and insightful. For example:

• The Energy Policy Act of 1992 laid the foundation for orderly and measured change in the nation's electric wholesale markets. FERC order 888, issued in May 1996, almost four years later, will be tested and challenged, rightfully so, until we get it right. That will take some time-that's OK.
• The 74^the Texas legislature, in amending the Public Utilities Regulatory Act, considered and rejected retail competition for Texas. The Act was amended to expand the electric wholesale markets and rules and regulations are being developed at the PUC. This was the right decision for Texas at this time. Texas is not in crisis. The electric system is reliable and electric prices are:
  • 35% below California electric prices
  • 44% below New Hampshire electric prices, and
  • prices in Texas are continuing to decline. The last three rate actions of the PUC have been rate decreases, not increases.

In addition Texas is gaining business, not losing-Texas has added over 1,000,000 jobs since 1990.

Why are some pressing for rapid change to deregulated retail access for the electric industry? Unregulated power generators want a share of the electric retail market and large customers believe there is an opportunity to reduce electric costs. It is likely, however that average electric customers will suffer if we move too rapidly to further change the industry structure. In fact, a recent study examining the effects of retail competition by Texas Per-spectives, Inc. concludes:

• Texans pay less than the national average, in terms of overall average cost of electricity
• There is not compelling short-term economic development need to attempt to lower electricity prices, because Texas already enjoys a competitive advantage
• Texas might see higher average rates if retail wheeling were introduced on a national level
• Any benefits from competition would not reach small-volume consumers until well beyond ten years from the introduction of retail wheeling.

Some would have us believe that "everyone" is rushing to adopt retail wheeling and Texas should do the same. The fact of the matter is everyone else is not doing it. I believe it is significant that nine other states (eight of which have higher electric rates than Texas) previously considered and rejected retail competition. Indeed, no state has implemented full retail competition at this time.

In Texas:

• Do we have a crisis? I say no.
• What is the problem we are trying to fix? Let's be sure we know before we act.

Investor-owned utilities, electric cooperatives, city-owned electric systems and our customers, employees, taxpayers, and shareholders all have an important stake in this important issue. It's better to do it right than fast!

by Jeff Carrell, Electronic Communications Chairman

Regardless of the locale, we can generally make a telephone call, but if it is long distance we have to pay the price. Now, there's a way to place a telephone call using your personal computer and the Internet as the communications link. The real benefit, the cost is only your phone call to your ISP!

Depending on many variables, such as computer speed, software, sound hardware, and the communications link speed and its quality, using this medium can be as good as using a normal telephone, although you probably can't "hear a pin drop":-) There can be some occasional delays or echoes and maybe even drop-offs in your conversations. What seems to be the most significant factor in addition to hardware and software is the quality of each party's phone line to the ISP.

System requirements

Your computer needs to be at least a 25Mhz system, although some software programs may require a faster, more powerful system. For the communications side, you need at least a 14.4Kbps link, but like anything else on the 'Net - the faster the better. One of the most important components is the sound card. In order to have a full-duplex conversation, you (and your calling party) must a have sound cards that support full-duplex operation. Be very careful in selecting your sound card, make sure it either has or can have (with a driver upgrade) full-duplex capability.

The software is very important as well. You and your calling party(ies) must have the same software at this time, as there are no standards in which they must operate. Phone software and your sound card are probably the most important factors when choosing what products you want to use. If you want to communicate with someone else, find out if they have already invested in this technology and then match your setup to theirs.

The final two components required are speakers and a microphone. In both cases, you don't need the most expensive or even mid-priced products. Some sound card kits include speakers and a microphone and they are generally adequate to perform the job you need.

Internet phone software can range anywhere from free to about $70.00 or so. Based on some of the software reviews this year, it's a toss up as to which software is better than the other. Hardware costs (excluding the initial computer system itself) can range from about $150.00 to over $400.00, depending on how extravagant you get when choosing speakers.

There is even a way to do multicast broadcasts, using a function called the Internet Multicast Backbone or MBone. See the MBone web page for more information.

For more information

http://rpcp.mit.edu/~itel/ Internet Telephony Interoperability Consortium

http://www.von.org/ Voice On The Net Coalition

"Internet Phones, The Future is Calling," Internet World, June 1996

"The Internet Phone Craze," NetGuide, June 1996

http://www.best.com/~prince/techinfo/mbone.html MBone Website

Action Alert -- '97: The Year for Pension Portability

IEEE-USA has lobbied long and hard for pension portability and retirement benefits legislation. Several bills addressing these issues were introduced in the 104th Congress but will not see action due to the shortened legislative year and the national election.

• The Clinton Administration's Retirement Savings and Security Act (S. 1818/H.R. 3520) calls for expanded IRAs, a new salary reduction savings plan for small businesses, simplified administrative requirements, improved portability from defined contribution plans and limits on pension raiding.
• The Pension ProSave Act (S. 1922/S.1923), will improve retirement income security by establishing a supplementary "Pension ProSave System" and facilitate pension portability by permitting transfers from existing plans to ProSave accounts or to IRAs.
• The Pension Reform Act (H.R. 1048), includes provisions to prohibit the integration of Social Security benefits and Simplified Employee Pensions; eliminates 10 year vesting requirements for multi-employer plans and authorizes studies relating to cost-of-living adjustment and pension portability.

Where the parties stand

The 1996 Democratic National Platform contains a brief statement endorsing pension portability improvements: "We want to make sure people can carry their pensions with them when they change jobs, protect pensions even further, and expand the number of workers with pension cover."

The 1996 Republican National Platform does not address pension portability. Previously, the Republican-led Congressional Joint Economic Committee has stated that "Workers risk losing pensions in downsizings or job changes because the current tax code favors corporate pension provisions over individual pension plans. A genuinely portable pension policy would give all individuals setting up their own pension plans the same tax benefits they receive in corporate pension plans."

IEEE-USA's position

To reduce the benefit losses that may result when workers change jobs, IEEE-USA recommends that employers establish defined contribution plans that provide for immediate participation and vesting and full portability of benefits for eligible employees.

Federal legislation is also needed to reduce restrictive vesting requirements, improve pension portability and promote preservation of cashed-out benefits when workers change jobs. IEEE-USA recommends that:

1. Vesting requirements be reduced from 5 years to 3 years for single employer plans;
2. Portability be improved by permitting employees to transfer benefits from one plan to another following changes in employment; and
3. Preservation of benefits be encouraged by providing for direct transfers to IRAs or other portable plans when workers change jobs.

How you can make a difference

Help mobilize Congressional support for pension portability improvement legislation by writing to your Senators and Representatives in Washington. Explain that pension portability improvement legislation is urgently needed to strengthen employer-sponsored pension plans and to help make those plans more responsive to the changing needs of increasingly mobile American workers. Explain, using yourself as an example if possible, why pension portability improvements are such a critical issue for engineers and scientists.

A sample letter is attached for your use. Feel free to personalize this letter and highlight your own pension situation. Send a copy of your letters and any responses you receive to Vin O'Neill in the Washington office, 202-785-0017 (ext. 319), 202-785-0835 (fax), or v.oneill@ieee.org.

Sample letter

The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchison

US Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Hutchison:

Earlier this year, Democrats and Republicans in both Houses of Congress put aside their political differences and hammered out truly bipartisan health insurance reform legislation. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act will improve the availability, portability and continuity of health insurance coverage of many American workers.

Similar improvements in pension portability are long overdue. Presidential candidates, as well as aspiring Senators and Representatives have been promising to make pension benefits portable since the mid-1980's. But the pension portability problem is still with us.

Throughout the economy, workforce flexibility and mobility is artificially restricted by "job lock" - worker reluctance to change jobs for fear of losing their hard-earned pension benefits. And when they do change or lose their jobs, many workers - particularly those in traditional defined benefit pension plans- incur significant reductions in the value of their retirement benefits.

Three simple reforms are needed to reduce the pension benefit losses that currently result when workers change jobs: (1) Vesting requirements should be reduced from five to three years; (2) Workers should be permitted to transfer earned benefits from one plan to another or to an IRA following changes in employment and; (3) Preservation of earned benefits should be encouraged by providing for direct transfers of such benefits to IRAs or other portable plans.

I urge you to make pension portability reform a priority issue this Fall and work with like-minded Democrats and Republicans to actively support substantive pension portability legislation during the 105th Congress.

New Internet Initiatives

In an October 10 speech in Knoxville, President Clinton announced a series of initiatives to promote the Internet and its use in research and education. The centerpiece was Clinton's announcement that he would reprogram $100 million in FY 1998 federal funding to support the first stage of a "Next Generation Internet Initiative." The goals of the Initiative are:

1. Connect at least 100 universities and national labs with networks that are 100 -1000 times faster than today's Internet.
2. Promote experimentation with the next generation of networking technologies.
3. Demonstrate new applications that meet important national goals and missions such as scientific research, national security, distance education, environmental monitoring, and health care.

The President's Science and Technology Council has estimated that development of a next-generation Internet will cost between $350 million and $650 million, taking between five and six years to implement.

Cautious of having the Initiative labeled as "industrial policy," Administrative spokespersons emphasized that the effort is focused on developing new high speed networks for government and university research that the private sector is unlikely to support on its own. They reaffirmed that the private sector will continue to be responsible for construction, ownership, and operation of the Internet.

President Clinton also that every school and library in the U.S. be provided with free access to basic Internet services.

IEEE-USA has posted information the Internet Initiatives on the Web which can be accessed at http://www.ieee.org/usab/DOCUMENTS/ FORUM/ISSUES/internet.html.

R&D funding fares better than expected for FY 1997

Compromise was the game of the day as Congress pushed through an Omnibus Fiscal Year (FY) 1997 Appropriations bill (HR 3610) in its rush to adjournment. According to a preliminary analysis by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) R&D Budget and Policy Project, Congress appropriated $73.9 billion, which was 1.7 percent over the President's request and represents an overall increase of 4.1 percent.

Fiscal year 1997 funding for non-defense R&D rose 2.7 percent, more than $1.3 billion over the level anticipated by Congress in its FY 1997 Budget Resolution. Anxious to avoid a budget showdown just before the elections, congressional leaders backed down on efforts to reduce or eliminate funding for several high profile civilian R&D programs.

Efforts to create new patent trademark and copyright organization fall short

Congressional efforts to create a government corporation to administer patent, trademark and copyright policy have foundered because of time pressures and because vocal and vigorous opposition has been raised against the plan to move the copyright office out of the Library of Congress.

The Hatch bill (S.1961) and companion legislation in the House would have established a new office, the U.S. Intellectual Property Organization (USIPO) as a government corporation connected to the Department of Commerce. The rationale for the proposed change is that the locus of copyright policy making has shifted to the executive branch, "primarily because the international dimension of copyright has become dominant." Currently, two government entities deal with intellectual property, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) in the Department of Commerce and the Copyright Office, which is housed in the Library of Congress.

IEEE-USA's response to the House bill is mixed-on the one hand, HR 3460 is a step in the direction of patent harmonization which would lead to U.S. prosecution for worldwide patents, thereby reducing the cost of filing foreign patents. On the other hand, IEEE-USA has reservations regarding provisions on publication, term extension, re-examination, and prior-use rights. These reservations were outlined in a letter to bill sponsors.

NASA "base closing commission?"

NASA was told by a House panel that its response to Congressional budget cuts and other downsizing mandates is lagging. At a hearing on September 9 of the House Government Reform Subcommittee, the General Accounting Office (GAO) suggested that NASA might achieve its force reduction aims by creating a "base closing commission." This body, according to GAO, would be similar to the one that succeeded in closing military bases and achieving reductions in force. One of its principal features was that it was a take- it-or-leave-it proposition-leaving Congress no opportunity to intervene.

Meanwhile, the White House updated the National Space Policy to reflect changing circumstances and tighter budgets. The principal thrust of the revised policy, issued Sept. 19, is eliminating a manned expedition to Mars, replacing that costly venture with use of robots, "the sustained robotic exploration of Mars." Other elements of the 14-page plan include the transfer of some space activities to the private sector, development of less costly rocket technologies, consolidation of some military and civilian programs, and changes in procurement regulations for purchase of foreign launch services.

Government to act on "Y2K" problem

The "Year 2000" problem was explored in joint hearings of the House Science and Government Reform Committee and a major study by the Congressional Research Service has been forwarded to the White House.

On July 31, Sen. Pat Moynihan (D-N.Y.), who commissioned the CRS study, wrote the President saying the study "substantiates the worst fears of the naysayers." The three issues he cites are these:

• Costs of reviewing and rewriting codes for Federal and state governments-estimated at billions of dollars over the next three years.
• Range of time available for making corrections, the problems at the IRS and the Social Security Administration being particularly important; and
• The effect on the economy.

Moynihan asked the President to designate a special assistant to be responsible for assuring that all Federal agencies "be Y2K compliant" by Jan. 1, 1999, as well as all commercial and industrial firms that do business with the Government. Congress has also directed the Office of Management and Budget to report back by Nov. 1 with a strategy, timetable, and projected cost of correcting the Year 2000 problem in each federal agency.

For additional information on Legislative activities, consult the IEEE-USA homepage and The Legislative Report at http://www.ieee.org/ usab.

News Bytes

IEEE-USA's Medical Technology Policy Committee sponsored "The Future of Health Technology 1996," held Sept. 27 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. The conference brought together leading technology and health-policy thinkers to define a health-technology research agenda for the 21st century.

1996 PACE Conference participants wrote more than 200 letters on pension-portability and immigration legislation during the meeting over Labor Day weekend in Phoenix. IEEE-USA has issued an Action Alert calling on IEEE U.S. members to help make pension portability a priority issue for the next Congress by contacting Senators, Representatives and candidates for national office (see related story p. )

A number of U.S. IEEE members have been recently appointed or promoted to positions in the Federal government.

• Dr. Joseph Bordogna has stepped up from his position as Assistant Director for Engineering to serve as interim Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Elbert Marsh, a mechanical engineer, has been tapped to fill the engineering post.
• Dr. Juris Hartmanis (Cornell University) has been appointed as Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) for the National Science Foundation.
• Dr. Bradford W. Parkinson, a professor at Stanford University's High Energy Physics Laboratory has been named along with 10 other experts to the President's Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.
• Drs. John A. Armstrong (former VP for Science and Technology for IBM) and Stanley V. Jaskolski (chief technical officer for Eaton Corp.) have been nominated by President Clinton to serve on the National Science Board, an advisory body of the National Science Foundation.
• Dr. Ned Sauthoff (head of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory's Plasma Science and Technology Department)will represent IEEE as an ex-officio member of the Energy Department's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee.

IEEE-USA Chairman Joel Snyder wrote House conferees, on Sept. 17, that proposed immigration legislation (H.R. 2202) would weaken the Labor Department's already "limited authority" to investigate abuses of the temporary worker program. Before HR 2202 reached the House floor, conferees removed provisions that exempted many U.S. employers from some important requirements related to hiring temporary workers. After a flurry of last minute negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House, the House of Representatives adopted the major illegal immigration reform bill on Sept. 28th. It cleared the Senate, was rolled into a massive year end spending bill (HR 3610), and signed by the President two days later.

New products:

• The Web Site Source Book, 1996 version, is now available from the IEEE Library. A directory of major US businesses, organizations, agencies, institutions, and others on the World Wide Web, the Source Book lists names, addresses, phone numbers, gopher, email, URL and WWW addresses.
• The World of Learning 1996 is also available in the IEEE Library. This reference book is useful when attempting to find an association, university or publisher located outside North America where it may be difficult to find an address, phone or fax number.

Educational Activities recently released an exciting new product; the Career Asset Manager (CAM). This tool for individual career development planning can help keep all professional records in one place for easy access and resume generation. It also leads the user through a step-by-step process of goal setting, self-assessment and professional planning. Using CAM as a guide can lead to a more "turbo-charged" career, one that is resilient to change and ready to maximize opportunities.

CAM is available for $34.95. Call (908-562-5485) or check out their Website at http://www.ieee.org/eab/ .

Today, the IEEE Standards library consists of about 700 active standards in electrotechnology and related areas. The IEEE Standards Catalog, also located at the IEEE Standards Web page, http://stdsbbs.ieee.org/products/ catalog/catalog.html, is the best source for accurate and complete information on IEEE Standards. The information is organized by category (e.g. Information Technology, Power Systems, etc.). Standards are available in hard copy and on CD-ROM. Standards are also a part of the IEEE/IEE Electronic Library. By 1998, all IEEE Standards will be accessible over the Internet by subscription.

Anniversaries

Recognizing our Section members for their long-time commitment to the profession on the anniversary of their joining IEEE.

40 yrs: