Fortis is the largest investor-owned distribution utility in Canada, serving more than two million gas and electricity customers.

FORBES: A super Canadian stock

CMS's Consumers Energy unit has 626 miles of cast- and wrought-iron pipeline in its gas system, or about 2.4 percent of the utility's total distribution system.

WSJ: Report: Michigan a leader in outdated gas lines

There is a better approach: true deregulation of the electric utility industry--generation, transmission and distribution.

FORBES: Fact And Comment

There, the Colorado Springs Utility is preparing electrical engineers with an expertise in transmission and distribution.

FORBES: Connect

In the US a utility is usually made up of two things, power generation and power distribution.

FORBES: Which Should We Have: Public Utilities Or Regulated Private Monopolies?

Allowances would be given to electric transmission and distribution companies to pass on to ratepayers, a provision initiated by the Chicago utility Exelon.

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