Electricity and Deregulation

Apparently I wasn't clear in my post yesterday about my electric bill giving me a migraine. Let me try again.

Virginia is already a deregulated state with regard to electricity. This came about in 1997, I think it was, when the General Assembly passed "The Virginia Electric Utility Restructuring Act," which allowed direct retail sales to consumers as of January 1, 2002.

What was supposed to happen was competition among electric companies, as in, two or three would be calling you up and saying I can sell you this for that, and you would choose. You could shop around for the best rate.

But what happened essentially was that electricity went on sale at the wholesale level and the consumers were still stuck with the same companies. I mean, I haven't had anyone from say, Dominion Power or whoever else sells electricity in Virginia (I don't even know who that would be) calling me up to say they could beat Appalachian Power's rates. Have you?

In fact, I know people who are right on the line with Appalachian Power and Craig-Botetourt Electric Cooperative who have tried (within the last year) to switch from one electric company to another, and they have been told they can't do that.

So much for deregulation.

Here is an old story - 1997 - that I found written for The Virginian-Pilot. As you can see, the concerns raised here, mainly that consumers would end up with higher bills and no choice, basically have proven true.

So now here we are, 2007, and the Virginia General Assembly has before it bills to institute "re-regulation" of electric companies. These are House Bills 3068 and Senate Bill 1416.

Essentially these proposed bills would stop deregulation and restore control of your electric bill to the State Corporation Commission (SCC), which previously set rates based on multiple factors, including but not limited to corporate profit.

The proposed bills add consumer protections and place restrictions on the utility's ability to raise rates. It also provides incentives for new generation plants and environmental equipment, all subject to SCC review.

In short, it puts energy costs back in the hands of the government and takes it out of the profit-driven, greedy CEOs and stockholders who only give a damn about themselves and could care less if your grandma freezes to death because she can't afford to heat the house.

I have already told my state representatives that I support "re-regulation."

(And on a similar subject, Verizon is asking the General Assembly to deregulate pricing restrictions on your phone service. A story about it in the Washington Times is here. I don't know about you, but I sure miss AT&T and Ma Bell.)