Can demand response receive comparable treatment to traditional generation?

With robust discussion at both the state and federal levels on the treatment and consideration of Demand Response, including Aggregators of Retail Choice (ARC) / Curtailment Service Providers (CSP), there are still many questions left to be answered. The debate seems to draw a definitive line in the sand and has the Independent System Operators (ISO) and Regional Transmission System Operators (RTO) in both the US and Canada stuck squarely in the middle of the discussions.