Which utility organizational structure is better - customer-ownership or investor-ownership? Both sides have data to justify their position. The debate is useful, but one hundred years of actual experience teaches us that both structures are efficient, reliable, and innovative. The most important distinction is that customer-owned utilities are inherently more democratically governed, closer to their customers and more responsive to them. The federal government has recognized these differences, and since the 1930s has established policies to nurture customer-owned electric utilities. Will we continue to do so in the age of deregulation? Look in this section for the rules that can help bring control of the electricity sector closer to home.

RULES:

• Community as the Default Electricity Provider
  Early indications are that the vast majority of consumers will choose not to choose in the era of electric deregulation. Who, then, should be their default supplier? Massachusetts and Ohio have decided that communities should have the option to serve their own citizens if they choose. Community choice, or aggregation, will create community pools of electricity buying large enough to command leverage on the market. More...
• Customer-Owned Electric Utilities - Generation, Transmission & Distribution
  Public ownership of our power systems is garnering increasing attention in a restructured electricity market. Because customer-owned utilities are democratic and locally controlled, and service rather than profit oriented, we should encourage their formation. In today's topsy-turvy electricity world, states should encourage the formation not only of customer-owned distribution utilities, but public transmission utilities and generation utilities as well. More...
• Green Citizenship vs. Green Pricing
  Green-pricing programs, in which customers are asked to voluntarily pay a premium for varying amounts of electricity generated by renewable fuels, are sweeping the country. A much better way for consumers to increase the supply of renewable energy is to exercise "green citizenship." If a significant majority of the customers of a given utility vote for green energy, the utility can purchase a larger amount of renewables and spread the costs over its entire customer base. More...
• Moratorium on Large Energy Company Mergers
  Mergers by definition move those who make the decisions further away from those who feel the impact of such decisions. Currently there are over 200 investor-owned utilities in the U.S, none has more than a 3 percent national market share. But many observers, expect that within a decade only a handful or so will remain. Merger proponents argue that they improve efficiency, but the utilities' own data indicates that at best, the improvements are meager. Massachusetts legislation would assure that shareholders, and not consumers, take on the risk that a merger or acquisition may not save money. More...