If you were told you could operate a business with no competition, you would want to know what the catch is.
The catch is that it would have to be a regulated monopoly. What’s more, you could …
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If you were told you could operate a business with no competition, you would want to know what the catch is.
The catch is that it would have to be a regulated monopoly. What’s more, you could charge customers whatever you wanted if you convinced the Public Disservice Commission to let you get away with it.
Don’t let anyone fool you that the PSC protects you as a ratepayer. They are paid to protect guess who? The utilities.
The PSC’s worse decision was letting SCANA try to build a $9 billion nuclear plant with incompetent contractors, says a close observer, Jim Clarkson of Resource Supply Management.
Clarkson advises large energy users on how to control costs.
The PSC was aided and abetted by state lawmakers who let utility lobbyists talk them into a law to let SCANA pick its ratepayers’ pockets to finance a 9 billion buck boondoggle.
Ratepayers should not have been burdened by SCANA’s mismanagement. Without regulation, you could not be forced to pay off SCANA’s debt.
Without PSC protection, the new owner, Dominion Energy, could not charge you for it.
SCANA told the PSC it would be bankrupted if they could not make their ratepayers pay for their nuclear mismanagement.
Clarkson says the PSC should have turned them down and let nature take its course. Bankruptcy would have been a better.
Besides, the PSC is not needed. It does not regulate Santee Cooper, electric cooperatives such as Mid-Carolina Electric or the municipal power systems.
Monopolies argue they should not undergo bankruptcy because defaulting on debt would restrict future borrowing and stock sales. Actually, that would be good. The mismanagers would pay for their mistakes.
By ending exclusive territories and letting ratepayers buy the cheapest power available, rates would plummet and ratepayers would not be held captive.
An open market is a cruel regulator and severely punishes stupid business decisions.
What do you think? Write us at JerryBellune@yahoo.com
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