Arlon R. Tussing

Economic and Regulatory Development / Director

Educator, author, lecturer and consultant: Arlon R. Tussing is an economic and policy analyst in the fields of energy, public utilities, the environment, natural resources, national and regional economic development, as well as corporate and government finance.

Market analysis and forecasting regarding oil, gas, and electricity:
Tussing is one of the few analysts in North America who successfully anticipated the direction, dimensions, and timing of prices and restructuring in global oil markets and North American markets for natural-gas and electricity during the 1980s and 1990s.

He has been involved in economic feasibility evaluation and due diligence review of energy projects and acquisition proposals. A recent project involved evaluation of an electric utility's contemplated purchase of a major natural-gas pipeline and gas-market hub facilities, and the long-term regional demand for infrastructure to serve a rapidly developing coal-bed methane industry.

Included in his work are the valuation of crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas; producing properties; and transmission, refining, and processing facilities, in connection with sales, price determination, contract performance, tax assessment, and determination of royalties.

Related work has included drafting, interpretation, and reformation of gas-sales contracts, and attendant negotiation, arbitration and litigation, particularly during mid-1980s restructuring of natural-gas markets. Tussing devised the strategy for restructuring, buying down, or buying gas purchase contracts on behalf of one of the five largest interstate pipelines. He also played a central role in the New York Mercantile Exchange's establishment of natural-gas futures trading.

Tussing played a crucial leadership role in restructuring of gas-utility services and regulatory standards in California and Montana, and in development of standards for "open-access" transmission throughout North America. Tussing has appeared before the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC], the Economic Regulatory Administration [ERA] and other agencies in the U.S. Department of Energy, Canada's National Energy Board [NEB], and at state or provincial utility commissions or energy boards in Alaska, British Columbia, California, Montana, Nova Scotia, Oklahoma, Ontario, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Washington.

Tussing was Chief Economist, U.S. Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (now Committee on Energy and Natural Resources); Chief Economist, U.S. Senate.