MSU prof on Energy Privitization on As It Happens (NPR)

[AP]

(Ken Rose is the prof.) He's talking about how, with privitization, there's less of an economic incentive in maintenance and upgrade. He says that, in terms of return on investment, other things get way more priority. Under the old regulatory model -- the details of which aren't clear to me -- there was a direct link between investments in reliability and recovering that investment. With deregualtion, the government doesn't force that relationship. The utilities are free to make whatever investments they choose and the government doesn't create incentives.

He's not saying it, but the perfect example of this is that we just had a blackout and the president is talking up increased rates -- he's trying to assuage the pain of less disposable income by tying that into the promise (illusion?) of more reliable electricity. In other words, the utilities just got a huge rate boost by being unreliable. It's fucked up.