On Mar 16, 11:46*am, Joe wrote:
Deregulation spawned a lot of suppliers that are buying in bulk from
the same people that used to supply us, re-sell the same power we used
to buy and skim off millions of dollars that should be savings in our
pockets.

These so called power companies are just a desk, phone, and computer
and a big bank account with our money.

Aw, those republicans are always out to let market forces reduce our cost of
living, aren't they?- Hide quoted text -

30 years ago, the local electric company had a highly skilled staff of
maintenance people that worked year round trimming trees back from power
lines and maintaining the lines as well. Power outages were maybe once
every 5 years, if that, and short in duration when they did happen.

With deregulation, the power company had to trim back their workforce
to a skeleton crew. There has been so much cost cutting locally that
line maintenance is almost nonexistant. Power outages caused by storms
are frequent and typically last 48 hours or so.

The bottom line is that any money I might have saved on my electric
bill, I've had to spend triple that running a generator.

**** deregulation! Put it back the way it was.

"With deregulation, the power company had to trim back their
workforce to a skeleton crew. There has been so much cost cutting
locally that
line maintenance is almost nonexistant. "

Tell that to the crew that is replacing a half dozen or so poles in my
neighborhood.

I've got 2 ploes in front of my house right now...new and old. Next
week they'll be transferring the wires.

It actually works out great for me since I park right next to the old
pole, which prevented me from opening the passenger side door if I
backed in. They've positioned the new pole far enough away that I
won't have that problem any more.

The only downside is that they cut a huge "U" into a very old pine
tree at the end of the street to open it up for the wires. Someone,
many years ago, had strapped 2 x 4's to the wires where they ran
through the tree so that the wood rested on the branches, not the
wires. Those supports will no longer be needed since the tree crew
removed all of the branches on the inside the tree so that wires hang
free.

Can you say butt-ugly?