Montana
By area, Montana is the fourth-largest state in the United States. It is also one of the most sparsely populated.[1] In the years before World War I, the state government decided to bring electricity to all of the people of Montana by creating a statewide electric company. The new utility operated as a monopoly, albeit a heavily regulated one. Montana Power built a statewide network of power lines whose installation and maintenance ate up huge chunks of revenue. If it had not been a monopoly, Montana Power could never have broken even, let alone turned a profit. For decades, the people of the state were happy with their reasonably priced, reliable electric company.
Then, in 1997, the Republicans in the state legislature caught the deregulation bug and broke up the monopoly. (And, yes, Goldman Sachs was at the center of it.)[2] Now, many Montanans pay through the nose and the ass for their electricity. And if you're a rancher who lives in the middle of the middle of nowhere, and your power line breaks thanks to an ice storm, have fun waiting for the power company to send out a repair crew.
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For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about Montana. |
[edit] References
- ↑ In 2000, when the U.S. census showed a state population of 902,195, state officials were sure that the state's population would exceed one million by 2010. They were off by about two years as the 2010 census placed the state's population at 989,415.
- ↑ Kohn, David, and Steve Croft. "Who Killed Montana Power?" 60 Minutes-CBS News website, posted 10 August 2003.