Watching a CNN report on "why" we are experiencing so many utility failures leaves me with a basic question: Just what the hell is going on? I'm not THAT old, but it seems to me that no matter HOW extreme the weather when I was a "kid", things were restored quickly, systems maintained. It seemed maintainence was constant. Just what has changed?
PRIVATIZATION of public utilities my freinds. They no longer work for me and you: They work for Wall Street.
(flip)
Now, dont get me wrong. I'm no Commie bastard. I believe in market economics. HOWEVER, for services that effect our basic quality of life, even SURVIVAL in the event of hospitals, heat waves, etc...... does it really make sense to trust those services to private companies who's goal is to not continue to provide a steady, secure source of power (since we are talking about electricity) but thier duty is to make money for stockholders? Yes, dividents are more important than upgrading and improving the system to match demand!! Yes, as a society we are using too much electrity. We all should do our part to reduce consumption, and as a result SAVE MONEY!! Our high tech world demands much. However, you would think that the powers that be in utility companies could have seen this coming..... oh TEN years ago!!
I grew up in a town in Michigan that is lucky enough to have thier own power plant. Granted, it is a dirty coal burning plant. (In a perfect world, they will upgrade to an environmentally freindly means of generation.) By PUBLICALLY owning the plant, they are energy independent from the regional grid. All other cities around them are plauged with power outages with bad weather, surges, etc..... Not to mention much higher rates. My hometown has the luxury of selling its extra capacity, all to the profit of my hometown. In fact, the profit from the electrical plant contributes 10-20% of the cities general fund. I feel it IS appropriate for a municipality to own this most essential service. It serves the public, not stockholders. As they look to the future, I hope that a new plant can be constructed that is eco-freindly, but maintain the independent model that exists.
Now, as I live in California, I see the absurdity of the corporate owned utility fiasco. Of course, there was the ENRON manipuation sceme a few years back...... that goes without saying. But for-profit companies dont answer to me and you. They answer to stockholders. 99.9% of them not living in the area that they serve. They have NO interest in maintaining existing systems. They only seek to make money and provide a divident to the owners. They wont fix it until it breaks. Usually during a weather crisis such as the entire country is now experiencing. As citizens of this country we all need to take a step back and see if privatazation has served us. Just what have we gotten, as taxpayers, for the tradeoff?
The bottom line is that electicity and water are not luxuries. They are necessities in our world. And to trust them to a market that only views them as a business, not a necessity is naive on our part. We should all do our part to become independent of the grid by making our homes more energy efficient, adding solar panels, and by doing a load analysis of our current consumption. By knowing what we use, we are all able to figure out what we can reduce. And we should all pressure our LOCAL lawmakes to look at options for power. Is a locally or regionally owned generation system an option? Solar? Hydro? Wind? Its hard to believe that we live in the richest country in the world and they STILL cant figure out how to keep the lights on!! We need to fight for change from this.