[merrylander]

Running through this thread and others is the usual 'government is inefficient' mythology, you want inefficiency I give you Constipation Energy, our local power company.

First off the put in an investment banker as CEO, not an engineer. He used all the revenues investing in non-power related stuff and let the infrastructure rot.

Where I came from there were two utilities that I dealt with, Hydro Quebec and Ontario Hydro. Both were goverment owned and both are profitable and have ample power reserves for the future. Their rates are less than half what Constipation charges (and Constipation wants to raise them again after getting a 72% raise last year). They say we may see brownouts in a few years because they want the taxpayers to build their new plants.

BTW if the two Canadian utilities did not produce so much power half the northeast states would be freezing in the dark.