 alanhdslPremium
join:1999-10-09
Phoenix, AZ | reply to LegoPower77
Re: Will the data show regulation the way to go? The retail price was capped, in repsonse to the assertion that deregulation would make prices cheaper. It was to force the providers to live up to this promise.
Enron and company forced up the price on the wholesale side and tried to force the state to break the caps. If that had been allowed, the retail price would have tripled. Instead, the evil regulators kept the caps and sent the Enron guys to jail. Notice that despite continuing growth and not much new generating capacity, California has not had nearly as many problems since the supply manipulation was stopped.
If the position is that higher retail prices are a good thing in exchange for reduced regulation, fine, make that point to the public. But be honest about it and state right up front that higher prices are your goal. |
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 LegoPower77AbecedarianPremium
join:2002-08-03
Midlothian, VA | I'm for prices reflecting reality. Regulation tends to mute the price function and therefor leads to waste.
In the case of electricity (and everything else for that matter), when people don't confront the full cost, they will waste it. Higher prices give incentive to conserve. High prices in a regulatory regime probably will not translate down to the consumer, but someone still has to pay for it. Can the government just arbitrarily set a price and have it be so?
If it's a choice between supply and demand, buyers and sellers setting the price or a politically-connected regulatory board setting them, I'll take the former even if that means high prices happen sometimes.
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"It is a melancholy reflection that liberty should be equally exposed to danger whether the government have too much or too little power."—James Madison
It's right, it's free. |
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| Can the government just arbitrarily set a price and have it be so?
Kind of, but if they do on a federal level, it will indeed be swallowed in debt and never accounted for with taxes, subsidies or bonds.
That is why such regulatory price functions are best left to local governments and the private industry together. Both have more direct finance accountability than the feds. |
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