WASHINGTON - Southern governors have appealed again for President Bush's support in their efforts to maintain state control over electric power regulation.

Led by Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia, governors in eight states including the Carolinas wrote to Bush this week, complaining for the second time this year that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is trying to restructure the Southern power industry and is ignoring state interests.

"As the chief elected officials of Southern states, we know best how to protect Southern ratepayers and look out for the economic interests of our states," they wrote. They appealed to the president to "respect regional differences and protect Southern ratepayers."

Southern officials have been warning for more than a year that Pat Wood, whom Bush appointed chairman of FERC, is trying to railroad them into accepting the commission's "standard market design" idea of a national electric power wholesale market.

"We do not believe that we have a `broken' system that needs to be `fixed' by FERC, or that we need FERC to protect our retail ratepayers," the governors said.

A FERC spokesman said the commission, which regulates electricity, natural gas, pipelines and portions of the oil industry, agrees with the Southern governors in the wish "that the South continues to enjoy a reliable supply of electricity at the lowest possible price."

One of the ways FERC pursues this goal "is by promoting nondiscriminatory competition in wholesale power markets," said spokesman Brian Lee.

He added that the governors' letter "clearly shows that FERC is not doing enough to reach out and effectively communicate its policies and obligations, and we're going to redouble that effort."

FERC's standard market design concept would separate the operation of regional, high-voltage transmission lines from companies that generate and sell electric power. Wood and his fellow commissioners advocate creation of regional transmission organizations to operate the transmission lines.

Wood says he just wants an efficient, reliable and transparent national power system, in which market forces determine rates. Without such a system, its advocates argue, companies that operate generating plants sometimes favor their own facilities in moving electricity to consumers.

But Southern officials, especially public utility regulators, say firmly regulated state industries in which large power companies control power grids and generating plants produce lower rates for power users.

"We're not saying, `No, no and hell no,' " said N.C. Utilities Commissioner Sam Ervin IV. "We're not saying FERC is inherently wrong in some of its ideas. We're just not open to having them forced onto us."

Ervin and other Southern regulators have warned that the standard market design model, if imposed on the power industry in Southern states, could lead to increased costs for businesses and homeowners.

And they say FERC appears to be coercing formation of the regional transmission entities in a way that illegally usurps state power regulation authority.

The letter was signed first by Perdue, followed by Govs. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mike Easley of North Carolina, Bob Wise of West Virginia and Bob Riley of Alabama.

It was the second letter Southern governors have written to Bush this year, complaining that Wood was trying to take over state regulatory functions. The earlier letter, dated Feb. 3, was not answered by Bush, but by Wood. It was not immediately clear why Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who signed the first letter, did not sign this week's correspondence.