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Let’s take a minute to vividly illustrate why monopoly power in the electric business is bad, by way of Va. 1/ http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/general_assembly/utility-reform-package-clears-house-committee-heads-to-floor-vote/article_29bcd253-93a1-59be-87d7-206316048e26.html
In 30 states, utilities get government-granted monopolies subject to public oversight by a regulatory commission. See below.. 2/
These monopolies were established 100 years ago to avoid costly duplication in building the grid, and to capture economies of scale. 3/
Duplication is not longer a rationale for monopoly. We have a grid, we expended the capital. Now, we need a grid that allows for transaction. Like freeways. A commons. 4/
Power generation is also no longer a monopoly. It was de-monopolized at the wholesale level in 1978 with PURPA, in the 1990s with transmission access, and now at the retail level with solar/storage. 5/
It's not just de-monopolized, but solar often provides cheaper electricity from a rooftop than the utility can provide it. 6/
So we don't need monopolies for the grid or to generate power, but in 30 state we still have legacy monopoly rules. 7/
Here's what that means. In Virginia, @DomEnergyVA is *supposedly* overseen by the state corporation commission. But thanks to its lobbying power... 8/
A Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist recently wrote: “when the SCC has done something that Dominion deems offensive...the company uses its checkbook to entice legislators to undo it” 9/
Example: in 2015, under the threat of carbon regulation, @DomEnergyVA got the leg. to pass a law to allow it to keep excess profits. 10/
Since 2015, @DomEnergyVA has collected over $1 billion in excess profits due to its customers, with regulators powerless to return them. 11/
So under fire to return the money, @DomEnergyVA runs a bill in 2018 to give back just 1 in 5 dollars owed, and instead spend the rest on utility-owned solar, etc... 12/
Allowing it to collect double profit on the same customer dollar. Bill is here: http://www.roanoke.com/news/politics/general_assembly/utility-reform-package-clears-house-committee-heads-to-floor-vote/article_29bcd253-93a1-59be-87d7-206316048e26.html 13/
Meanwhile, down in South Carolina where an incumbent utility ignited a "bonfire of risky spending" on a failed nuclear power plant, @DomEnergyVA is lurking 14/
They offered to buy out the existing monopoly, but only if the legislature keeps the piece of legislation that allowed the incumbent to blow $9 billion on a power plant that will never produce power 15/ https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/scana-dominion-merger-a-risky-deal-for-s-c-ratepayers/article_74a739ea-06d4-11e8-aca6-aba462a44c6e.html?utm_source=Energy+Self-Reliant+States&utm_campaign=9d919d5742-Energy_Self_Reliant_States_1_12_151_8_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_86e661ed1e-9d919d5742-8041621
The problem with monopoly utilities isn't a "market" or "economic" one alone, but a *political* one where utility economic power lets them distort the rules of fair play. 16/
It means laws protecting risky investment strategies from scrutiny, costing customers in the Southeast $40 billion! 17/ https://www.postandcourier.com/news/power-failure-how-utilities-across-the-u-s-changed-the/article_434e8778-c880-11e7-9691-e7b11f5b3381.html
It means opposition to solar rights via underhanded ballot initiatives to prevent customers from harnessing the sun on their own rooftop: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article109017387.html 18/
And it means overspending on power plants that provide immediate shareholder benefit and long-term customer risk: http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-fi-electricity-capacity/ 19/
I could tweet an example a day for a year, but the point is this: monopoly utility power, as demonstrated by @DomEnergyVA, is anathema to affordable energy, market access, and fair play. 20/
And the solution is not regulation, but choice. Choice to go solar, choice to join a shared solar project, choice to have my city choose its energy supply. 21/
Choice is the antidote to monopoly, and it's the only way to break the economic and political power of @DomEnergyVA and other utility monopolies /fin
