Congress has several bills pending to deregulate the electric industry nationally in part by repealing the 1935 Electric Utility Holding Company Act. Twenty-five states have already fully or partially deregulated their electricity markets. Connecticut has done so partially, allowing any generator into the game while on the road to full deregulation. Competition is heating up. A decade ago they sold 10.
Good jobs building cheaper, better, power plants are the good news.
But those jobs may be a temporary by-product of a larger shift in the economics of power. The group hired public relations firms and lobbyists to convince Congress that ordinary power users were outraged by high electricity prices. Power companies struck back with their own organizing. Freed from those huge debts, the traditional utilities pledged to compete in the open market. Of course, ordinary consumers were never truly outraged by their electric bills.