The 1935 Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) is going to be repealed this week. The hope is that investments and mergers in utility companies will produce economies of scale and lower prices for consumers. The concern is that going public with the nations 3000 utilities will lead to customer abuse in the name of investor profit.

Will allowing utility companies to merge be a good thing for consumers? Why or why not?

This little primer covers my take pretty well:

PUHCA for Dummies

It's a PDF, so you need the Acrobat reader on your machine.

In a nutshell, Congress is once again setting us up for disaster. Expect Enron-like bankruptcies down the road.

The fundamental weakness in capitalism seems to be wanted again, where you take stable funds from one outfit and speculate on something else with greater risk. More money can be made this way, sure. But only a few people benefit from the profit, whereas if the gamble loses, many more people take the hit.

Getting off the grid suddenly looks like a good strategy.

I would only be in favor of this if competition at the local level could be assured.

Certainly anything is better than a “public run” utility or anything else. Just think Post Office.


Recently competition in the source of power was passed in MA and most of us have seen a 25% drop in the price per/KWH. The “delivery” is still a monopoly and if anything that part of the cost just goes up.