Thanks for this, Eugene. Fighting privatization of municipally owned utilities is particularly important now with deregulation spreading rapidly. Prices will go up and service deteriorate as any vestiges of compettion are snuffed out. Think of what happened with airline deregulation. If anything competition may be easier to snuff out in the utility industry.
Electricity is life-giving.
It is needed not only to run hospitals, but for things like oxygen support for home care, as the insurance companies force hospitals to empty. Also, electric utilties are responsible for a lot of the air pollution and global warming problems politicians are still ducking. These problems will be exacerbated as, e.g., cheaper coal is burned to cut costs. Reliability has always been a cornerstone of the regulated industry. As competition takes over and regulatory oversight of utilties weakens, reliability will be increasingly at risk, and, no doubt, lives will be lost.