Is "fair market value" activity in trouble?  Should public and private water utilities begin to worry?  Does the recent Cicero v. Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission decision by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania present a signal of change for the economic regulation of utilities?  Or, is this simply a wild card?  Cody Faulk with Spencer Fane LLP joins the Water Foresight Podcast to provide us with a balanced perspective on the future(s) of fair market value-based utility acquisitions. Is the public policy of utility consolidation dead or only if the utility is "troubled"?  What is the nature of "affirmative public benefits"?  What are the temporal limitations of the notion of "harm" (i.e., only in the present)?  Are rate increases always "bad"?  Is "same service" equal to "better service"?  Is "capability" equal to "cost-effective"?  How will states (and commissions) react?  Legislative amendments?  Rulemaking?  What will consumer advocates or municipal leaders do next?  Will the future of fair market value cases yield increased transaction costs--paid for by the ratepayers?  What would Adam Smith do?

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