Trump Moves to Make Tech Giants Pay for Surging Power Costs

[Prairie Gates]

6. Remember, the separation of generation and transmission assets in 1996 was supposed

to increase competition and thereby improve the energy sector. All hail FERC orders 888 and 889! Free to choose at last! The deregulation of utilities was going to spark a beautiful market in generation assets, allowing more entrants and thereby miraculously solving all the problems! Hurrah, markets are the true face of human freedom and the best way to organize everything.

Now, 30 years later, we get this:

providing secure revenues for years in a market notorious for price volatility and generator bankruptcies.

Oh, is that right? The government has to step in to force purchases in order to correct the utter failure of the market?

The US utilities sector: Another neoliberal lie.

You know who got rich as hell behind this nonsense, though? Goldman Sachs made huge bank for years selling bonds on generation assets. So did all the other underwriters in those bond syndicates. And the corporate lawyers. And the traders. Guess who got fucking ganked monthly with increased and ever increasing energy costs. That/s right: YOU.