Tbf, my city has a publicly owned utility company and it suuuuucks. Literally writing this comment on my phone during a 12 hour power outage during perfect weather.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I bet it's being deliberately underfunded and/or mismanaged to support an eventual attempt to privatize.

[–] skulkingaround 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Deliberately underfunded or mismanaged, maybe. It's been like this since the 90s at least. But I don't think they need any intent for a buyout for it to suck. Afaik, there is zero interest from any private buyers for our utilities.

If I had to point to a specific failure, it's that the rates are set by city council, and raising them is wildly unpopular. Everyone who proposed it loses re-election. We have some of the cheapest power in the world but fat lot of good that does when it's not on.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

How does that work? They still have to buy the power from someone, and those prices have increased. Or do they own their own power plant/turbine/whatever. Then they should sell the excess and subsidize their citizens.

[–] skulkingaround 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

They buy most power from TVA, the rate city council controls is the fixed rate markup they charge on top. Our power is $0.07/kwh by the time you pay for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Do you mean municipally owned? Publicly owned would mean it's traded on the stock market.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

Publicly owned means owned by the government. You are thinking of publicly traded companies, which are non public companies that have opened up stock ownership to the public