From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com(Steven B. Harris)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,misc.consumers.frugal-living,talk.politics.medicine,
	sci.med,misc.legal
Subject: Re: Disappointed and confused--don't know what to do
Date: 27 Apr 1999 00:51:21 GMT

In <372462D4.E6BE2EE7@cs.uoregon.edu> Bret Wood
<bretwood@cs.uoregon.edu> writes:

>Our electrical grid is based on socialism. (But that's about to
>change.)


   Yes, and before that became clear, people called it a natural
monopoly.  Just as they did the phone system 30 years before.

    But as with the phone system, you can have a single set of taps
into the house, and competition for carriers between nodes.  Whoever
wins, takes over the local distribution system as well.

    Even before that was true, Lubbock Texas had two completely
separate power systems, and for a time, three.  They had duplicate
lines on opposing sides of alleys and streets.  Get mad at one, and you
just call up the other to switch you over, a few minutes work of moving
a tap.  They do it on order, and the only thing they check is to see
that your bill with the other company is paid up.  Utility rates are
very low.  Service is very good.