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Claim: A municipal utility provides local control over rates, policies and generation resources.
Response: Actually, unless a new government utility builds generation of its own, which is unlikely, it will have little control over rates or generation resources. A new government utility can make all the policy it wants, but it likely will depend on an outside energy provider, which will set contract terms based on market prices and will provide generation from its own sources, outside of the city's control. The city will have a limited choice of providers as determined by transmission line connections. Furthermore, city utility customers will no longer have the state's oversight of rates leaving the city to raise them whenever it wants. |
