Energy Policy: Public Power

This is one of the most important policy issues to address the public in the last 100 years. There is a reason why General Electric owns NBC. Over the last 100 years there has been a major political battle in the U.S. and elsewhere over who should produce electricity for society. Private companies have waged an a vicious and deceitful war that has included outright lies and manipulation to maintain economic control over who power production here. There are major examples of publicly owned power programs in cities like Los Angeles and Seattle that have for years produced electricity at rates substantially lower than commercial power companies.

Attempts to demonstrate the major differences between public and private control of electricity have been recently demonstrated with California's failed push to give away California's electric infrastructure to companies like Enron and PG&E. America's media conglomerates, led by General Electric have waged a national campaign to deregulate electric power. The results have been huge economic damages and higher costs to ratepayers.