Power bills soar after electric deregulation

[babylonsister]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/04/20/ap_impact_power_bills_soar_after_electric_deregulation/?p1=email_to_a_friend

Power bills soar after electric deregulation

By Ryan Keith, Associated Press Writer | April 20, 2007

BENTON, Ill. --This wasn't supposed to happen with deregulation. Electric bills were supposed to go down. Instead, Ellie Dorchincez can almost see the dollars evaporating every time she turns on the lights or opens the freezer at her small Farm Fresh grocery store.

Her electric bill, which used to be about $800 a month, has jumped to $1,800. She's shut down a large freezer of frozen treats and now closes the store an hour early to cut costs but fears she still may have to raise prices and lay off some workers.

"I'm just trying to figure any way that I can right now to keep my business afloat," Dorchincez said. "My life is at stake here."

The cause of her distress is a common problem: the failure of deregulation to deliver its promise of lower electricity prices. In many states, it's had the opposite effect with sharply higher rates -- 72 percent in Maryland, up to 50 percent in Illinois.

more...

[Turbineguy]

1. Deregulation

It worked for Enron.

For a while.

[PDJane]

2. Of course.

As soon as you privatize, you add the profit motive. Bills don't go down because of competition in a place where the utilities have been free of the profit motive.

[Garbo 2004]

8. Deregulation is not synonymous with privatization. CA for ex had both private and public utilities

that operated under state regulated monopolies prior to "electricity restructuring." What the restructuring did in CA was open up the market and also allowed suppliers/producers to game the system. (And not all public utilities produce all the electricity they supply btw.)

[ixion]

3. solar

would help her situation out considerably.

We need to push the mentality to moving towards distributed, alternative power. It's just that simple.

[seemunkee]

6. payback on solar is a long ways out

15-20 years

[FreeStateDemocrat]

4. My rate increased 60% in one year, but happily it's being reported that inflation is under control

[Maestro]

5. Same thing happened to us in Texas

Some people are getting very rich on this scam.

[rurallib]

7. Deregulation probably works if there is competition

but without competition it is an unrestrained monopoly. That is a businesses wet dream being an unrestrained monopoly.
When I was on my local council our electric contract expired. Since we sat at the confluence of 3 competing companies we were able to leverage competition to dramatically lower bills and raise service.
But these companies were not unrestrained.

[Selatius]

10. They likely did not want competition in the first place. That's why they supported deregulation.

That's the problem.

Corporations always want to throw up barriers to entry to prevent more corporations from joining the market and starting competition. They exist to make a profit for shareholders, not to serve the public good necessarily.

If deregulation were done with the purpose of ensuring competition, then many of the same business interests that pushed for deregulation in the 1980s would not have supported deregulation as it would've meant slim profit margins in the face of stiff competition.

[SoCalDem]

9. Towns USED to have their OWN utilities

they were kind of non-profits. people were paid to run them. but the towns OWNED them. The prices charged were minimal compared to these days..

Scurrilous people came to power and then sold out towns by conning them into thinking that "it would cost TONS of money to upgrade", so why not just SELL the broken down old....water company, power company, gas company, and the people who buy it will "build us a new one" for less money..and the bills will go down..

Too many ignorant people bought the "magic bean" story, and we are where we are now..

[roguevalley]

11. Mine went double until we did the following about it:

1. bought kenmore elite washer/dryer set. cut our bill thirty bucks the first month.

2. changed all lights. leave only lights on when we are in the room. turn them off otherwise.

3. freezer, frig and dishwasher are energy plus. Don't wash dishes every day.

4. put all plugged in things on trays to turn off all of them at same time. Never leave computers or screens on without using them. always turn them off.

we went from $191 a month to $81 this month. can't wait to see next month now that we are going toward 24 hour light. :)

[babylonsister]

12. Wow! Great job!

We're making similar improvements to bring our bills down; just replaced kitchen appliances with gas, got a gas clothes dryer, and we're slowly changing our bulbs. I'm hoping to see some improvement, especially now that summer (and AC) is on the way.

[lonestarnot]

13. The same story with about everything these days.

Deregulation and split up of the phone co. did the same thing.

[madrchsod]

14. leader in the illinois senate fucked the citizens of illinois

friday because the bastard is in the pocket of the commonwealth edison who supplies power to all of northern illinois.

he was bought off by 284,000 dollars in campaign contributions from commonwealth edison

he`s a democrat

there were a hell of a lot of senators that could`t believe what he did and how he did it. remember folks ,just because there is a democrat in front of his or her name does`t mean that they are not corrupt bastards

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/352169,CST-NWS-power21.article
Rate freeze zapped :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Metro & Tri-State

[depakid]

15. I would like to remind people that Democrats

were overwhelming behind this and passed these scams in states like California with little public debate and despite repeated warning by progressive groups who knew DAMN WELL what was going to happen.

Like it or not, this was one of the reason Nader's assertion that "there's not a dimes worth of difference between the parties" stuck.

Because with all too many politicians, on all too many issues, it's proven true.

This being a PRIME example.