Both rejected it. In the end, utility service is local service. In a restructured environment, customers place a high value on price but an even higher value on service. In this respect, public power excels. The utility manager lives across town, not across the country or the ocean.
Local service is responsive service.
This explains why, when natural disasters strike, electric service tends to be restored most quickly in communities with public power. These attributes have always been important. Local service is what public power has been, is now, and will continue to be about. Congressional Debate Coyle may be right when he says that the promise of retail competition is an empty one for small consumers. Regardless, it is difficult to imagine retail competition working well for anyone, large or small, if Congress fails to put in place a structure that promotes competition in the interstate wholesale power market.