Customers may not be thrilled with deregulation now
By
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To the editor:
I have only written a letter to the editor twice in my life, but would like to offer some thoughts on deregulation on my third try.
The second letter I wrote was kind of on this topic and was submitted after the Christmas-time ice storm of 2004.
I am a customer of South Central Power and was out of power for eight days at the time. There was considerable uproar from a lot of their members at the time, some of the opinion that they should be out of the business and have one of the stockholder-held companies take over. Thank goodness that did not come to pass.
As a cooperative, their business is only to supply electricity to their customers. They are not in business to make money to pay dividends to their shareholders.
I have worked at a concern in Greenfield since 1981 and have watched the reliability of the electric supplier there slowly go down the drain. I can only come to the conclusion that this is the result of deregulation.
Back in the "old days," the utility was regulated and made enough money to maintain its infrastructure and pay a dividend to its shareholders, but no one ever got rich on the stock of that company. Its service was excellent and its price was reasonable.
This company sold off their natural gas business some time ago and the electric division is in the process of changing hands now.
I am a believer in capitalism and free markets until greed gets in the way of providing the things that have become necessities, with good service at a reasonable cost. Some utilities are unregulated monopolies now and the PUCO doesn't seem to be so concerned with the "public" part of their responsibility.
I would guess that some of AEP's customers are not thrilled with "choice" and deregulation right now.
Sincerely,
John Royse
Greenfield[[In-content Ad]]
I have only written a letter to the editor twice in my life, but would like to offer some thoughts on deregulation on my third try.
The second letter I wrote was kind of on this topic and was submitted after the Christmas-time ice storm of 2004.
I am a customer of South Central Power and was out of power for eight days at the time. There was considerable uproar from a lot of their members at the time, some of the opinion that they should be out of the business and have one of the stockholder-held companies take over. Thank goodness that did not come to pass.
As a cooperative, their business is only to supply electricity to their customers. They are not in business to make money to pay dividends to their shareholders.
I have worked at a concern in Greenfield since 1981 and have watched the reliability of the electric supplier there slowly go down the drain. I can only come to the conclusion that this is the result of deregulation.
Back in the "old days," the utility was regulated and made enough money to maintain its infrastructure and pay a dividend to its shareholders, but no one ever got rich on the stock of that company. Its service was excellent and its price was reasonable.
This company sold off their natural gas business some time ago and the electric division is in the process of changing hands now.
I am a believer in capitalism and free markets until greed gets in the way of providing the things that have become necessities, with good service at a reasonable cost. Some utilities are unregulated monopolies now and the PUCO doesn't seem to be so concerned with the "public" part of their responsibility.
I would guess that some of AEP's customers are not thrilled with "choice" and deregulation right now.
Sincerely,
John Royse
Greenfield[[In-content Ad]]