De-regulation or municipal ownership - Three times now I've been able to reap the benefits of not-for-profit electric rates. 25 years ago I was living in rural Ohio. My electricity was supplied by a local city that bought their power from a for profit company, Dayton Power & Light (DP&L). My in-laws lived about 5 miles away and tVeir power was directly from DP&L. My rates were much, much lower then my inlaws.
For the 18 years preceding last summer, I lived in southern Illinois. In harrisburg, we had CIPS (Central Illinois Power) now part of Ameren. At the time, late 80s/early 90s, we were paying nine and a half cents per kilo watt hour. We moved 20 miles away to Lake of Egypt and were part of a power co-operative, paying 5-3/4 cents per kwh.
Last summer we moved to wester Ohio. Our electricity is provided by the City of Piqua Utilities who buy their power from DP&L. I don't know what the rate is, but it is a lot less than people being billed by DP&L.
Munis and regulation are good for the average worker. For profits must meet certain Wall Street expectations and the pay the executives one hell of a lot more than muni employees get. And there are no dividends to pay to stockholders for the munis.
Posted by Chief at September 4, 2007 03:27 PMPerry isn't proposing 12 plants. TXU has cut that to 3. The Tom Paine bit doesn't reflect developments in the story.
Posted by Old News at September 5, 2007 06:51 AM