"Power to the People": article by Dennis Kucinich

[pnorman]

With an estimated 50 million Americans and Canadians having been left without power (and in some cases water) in August, common sense requires us to reflect on the absurdity of deregulation of public utilities. The right of utility franchise is vested in the people. We give utilities permission to operate, and enable them to set up a profit-making business in exchange for the promise of affordable and reliable service.

In 1992, investor-owned utilities pushed the Democratic House to pass HR776, which granted electric utilities broad powers. The bill was supposed to restructure the electric utility industry and thus spur competition.

But utilities used deregulation to facilitate a series of mergers that limited competition. In order to increase profits, the utilities cut costs by laying off thousands of employees, including some who maintained the generation, transmission, and distribution systems. A number of utilities stopped investing in the maintenance and repair of their own equipment in order to cut costs and enhance the value of their stock.

A case in point is FirstEnergy Corp., which was formed through a merger of utility companies that owned nuclear power plants, including The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (CEI).
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[goodhue]

1. because he was right

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