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0 pointswisty1y ago0 comments

Possibly due to overregulation.

The power company wants to cut corners. The government wants to prevent that. So there is constant lawfare between governments and highly regulated companies, with neither really caring if it leaves the customer out of pocket (since regulators can blame the bills on the company).

The company outsmarts the regulators so the regulators carpet bomb them with so much regulation that they hope it will plug all the loopholes. The incentives between them are simply too far apart. And with inbuilt market failures (due to it being a monoppoly) you don't have effective market mechanisms that allow the government to just set basic safety standards and get out of the way.

It's closer to the USSR than social democracy. http://highered.blogspot.com/2009/01/well-intentioned-commis...

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dv_dt1y ago

If you look a recent regulations that affect homeowner solar rates, it's quite the opposite, with the California Public Utility Commission being quite beholden to private utility wishes to the point of making home solar arrays much less cost effective so that utilities can be the only source of solar from larger grid installs. Large utility solar installs are inherently more cost efficient anyway, but the finger on inhibiting home solar was completely unnecessary yet still eagerly passed by the PUC.

heylook1y ago

[flagged]

dang1y ago

Please don't cross into personal attack in HN threads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

zmgsabst1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawfare

imajoredinecon1y ago

For what it’s worth, I just took the parent comment’s wording as metaphor.

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