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Politics : Ask Michael Burke -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Richard Nehrboss who wrote (35097)	11/2/1998 1:25:00 PM
From: yard_man	Respond to of 132070

>> Utility regulation causes (like medicine) artificial control of supply. This in turn is bad for consumers. Anytime government dictates what lines will run in front of our house, we're in trouble. Look at telephone deregulation. Now consumers are getting a multitude of choices and prices are falling (thanks for the years of ripping me off Public Utilities Commission). How about cable... same story (I think Gore authored the bill). DSS comes and saves us, keeping the checks and balances. In short, without the PUC and Utility regulations, I think we'd have lower prices and more creative energy alternatives.<< As a utility regulator, can I make a few short comments? 1) Your perceptions about phone rates being lower because of deregulation has some truth in it, but it wasn't necessarily the PUC's that ripped you off. Rather it was the combination of both federal and state regulators. The regulatory model (rate of return regulation) used by PUC's was not a good one to deal with industries experiencing declining costs. 2) Prices may have fallen with more participants in the long distance arena, but they are still far too high! I wish I knew what the answer was -- I don't have much confidence in the recent telcom bill. Perhaps the greatest failure of PUCs and the FCC here was to not promote some transpearency -- so one could actually compare the bill which one would expect with one provider to that expected for the same amount of usage with another. My solution is a pragmatic one: I continually switch LD providers to get the introductory deals which look the best. 3) The reason that utilities were regulated in the first place was to prevent a couple of bad things which I still think we want to avoid: a)uneconomic duplication of facilities and b)monopolistic or predatory pricing and c) to provide everyone with a reasonable (lots of differing opinion on this) oppty to get the basic service As more and more telephone technologies are deployed -- I think this is less important perhaps and competition, i.e. real competition, not what the telcos advocate, can probably work to some extent, but there will always be high cost areas to serve. However, for services like electric, gas and water -- the distribution part must necessarily be operated as a franchise licensed by the state. Otherwise you would have pandemonium when it comes rights of way, duplication of facilities, et. That said many PUCs, our state's included, have done a terribly poor job at regulating utilities. Rate of return regulation has become essentially a "cost-plus" business because the folks who sit on PUC boards are unwilling to take responsibility and look out primarily for the ratepayer. The best help that a regulator can have is people who are interested in having rates that are reasonable. If you think your PUC is screwing up in a particular area or w/respect to rates for a particular utility, I would suggest that you write your consuemr representative or the PUC staff in your state. You letter will have more of an effect than you might think. Utility regulation is strange, far from optimal, IMO. I given it a lot of thought, but I don't know how the distribution parts of the business could just be operated as competitive businesses. If you have some ideas along these lines -- help me put myself out of a job (and hopefully a few utility personnel at the same time). Regards, Tippet

To: Richard Nehrboss who wrote (35097)	11/2/1998 3:44:00 PM
From: Knighty Tin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 132070

Richard, Has anyone seen prices go down with the recent utility competition? Not me. Unlike phones, you cannot go wireless on sewer pipes. And you cannot dig forever for new cos to establish theirs. After a while you hit magma. I paid $7 a month for cable 5 years ago. Now I pay $34. Thanks for the choices. -g- One reason private schools are better is that many force parental involvement and allow discipline. If the parents got involved with public schools and changed some of the silly laws about students suing teachers who hit back, the problem would be solved. But parents want children who are neither seen nor heard, so they send them to be reared, literally and figuratively, in some cases, by private school teachers. China has always been the most capitalistic country in the world, desptite its govt. Ask a commodity trader. Nobody wants the other side of a Chinese govt. trade. BTW, the Chinese will shift the jewel to Shanghai over time. MB