Congressperson, Senators:
Corporate energy has proven time after time that it is only interested in profit.
Energy for profit has failed to maintain our overlarge power grids, has failed to innovate in the area of energy delivery systems, energy for profit has failed to innovate in creating more rapid response warning systems to alert utilities of outages, and the profit motive has failed to decentralize power generation by having more power generation sources distributed around the grid, rather than all of it being concentrated in large power plants.
Outages can be caused by an overstressed electrical grid trying to deliver large amounts of power on hot days. Sometimes outages are manmade such as when market manipulation by Enron led to rolling blackouts in California. While the current outages are primarily due to downed distribution lines—the lines that carry power through neighborhoods and into houses—other large-scale blackouts were caused by problems with the transmission grid, which carries large amounts of electricity from power plants into communities.
To counter downed lines, Germany has put most of its transmission lines underground. Our privatized energy system fears that doing this would cut into profits.
Furthermore, smart meters—devices in consumers’ homes that monitor their power use and communicate with the utility—can make it much easier for line crews to respond to outages without waiting for consumers to call the utility. This would be especially useful in times when telecommunications systems are damaged, and people can’t call the utility.
When we rely on centralized power plants, damages to just one line can cause massive outages. If the generation was spread widely across the grid, then damage to that same line will not have the same catastrophic consequences. While some people help by buying a diesel-burning generator (which pollutes the air and has very high fuel costs), many people could make a much smarter investment by putting solar panels on their rooftops.
Obviously, the profit motive serves us miserably, especially when energy corporations hold monopolies in regions which do not allow for the selection of the free market.
Profit is far more important to these nonhuman entities than service to customers.
Frankly, I'd like to nationalize energy. Maybe us poor energy consumers could get some decent service then -- and we'd be providing a lot of jobs for jobless Americans who desperately need work.
I stole most of my talking points from
Center for American Progress.