🚀 go-pugleaf

You know, you're all forgetting one thing...
*the government never deregulated anything.*
It just "alterna-regulated" the system... fixing the price the electric
companies could charge CUSTOMERS, yet freeing up the prices electricity
PRODUCERS could charge....
The equivalent of nailing both your feet to the floor, then offering to pull
the nail out of ONE foot-- then wondering why you only walk in a circle.

--
RH Junior
Freelance Artist/Cartoonist
http://www.geocities.com/blue27a
http://nipandtuck.keenspace.com
http://UTLT.keenspace.com

"Merlin Dorfman" <dorfman@rahul.net> wrote in message
news:9hct1a$nr6$1@samba.rahul.net...
> Jeffrey Siegal (jbs@quiotix.com) wrote:
> : Merlin Dorfman wrote:
> : >      The deregulation bill, as passed, was exactly what the
> : > utilities wanted and lobbied heavily for
>
> : I don't believe that.  First of all, the utilities were originally
> : opposed to deregulation, and joined the negotiations only when they
> : realized that it was going to happen.  Second, there are plenty of
> : provisions I can't believe were "exactly what the utilities wanted" such
> : as being forced to sell off their power plants and being prohibited from
> : buying long-term power contracts.  They probably did like the 10%
> : reduction, because they expected wholesale prices to drop even more than
> : that, and the fixed retail price meant a lot of extra profit for them.
> : That said, if they had gotten "exactly what they wanted," it would
> : probably have been just a price floor and not a fixed price.
>
>      I haven't got the cites in front of me, but my recollection
> is that the idea of deregulation originated with the utilities,
> who saw the chance to get out from under a system where the price
> they could charge, and the profits they could make, were limited
> by a state commission.
>      If not the utilities, whose idea was it? (And don't tell me
> "Steve Peace.")
>
> : No, the only logical conclusion is that the deregulation law was a
> : compromise.  There was a lot in it for the utilities to like, but not
> : everything.
>
>      I'm sure there were some compromises, but the idea and the
> general form and most of the details were as the utilities
> wanted.
>