Self-promotion: I was on CNN last night, interviewed re the de-regulation
of electric power. The opening was provided by the blackouts experienced
in the Western US this summer. I'm opposed to the deregulation, though in
most States regulation serves the large customers, and to some extent the
utilities, more than it serves the public interest. My analysis is that
deregulation will be worse.
There are multiple reasons for my position, including the
anticipation of serious environmental degradation in the future, compared
to what might be achieved through public control. But in thinking about
this for a couple of years I've come to the conclusion that there is almost
no competition in the neo-classical sense for the consumer dollar.
Electricity, the proponents of de-regulation argue, is a commodity,
and thus will be subject to neo-classical competiton. But in watching the
strategies unfold I realize that what is planned is the conversion of this
commodity to a brand-name botique product, with the market highly segmented
(read customer discrimination) and the smaller customers paying the highest
prices.
I don't have cable TV and so I didn't see the two-minute spot, of
which I probably had ten or fifteen seconds. How did I look?
