Electric deregulation hasn’t worked in Ohio
Thanks to The Dispatch for Reporter Dan Gearino’s very fair, well-written and well-researched article in Saturday’s Business section on the news that FirstEnergy’s president, Chuck Jones, has suggested to both The Dispatch and The Plain Dealer in Cleveland that Ohio’s experiment with electric utility deregulation is not working.
He said it would be a good thing if our state law returned to its long tradition of sensible public-utility regulation, for the good of the electric-utility industry and its customers, the residents and businesses of Ohio.
Gearino’s story also noted that American Electric Power’s president agreed that Ohio’s current laws in this matter will not adequately support the needs of Ohio, and that Gov. John Kasich also has raised doubts about the system.
In 1999, when the new, “deregulated” set of Ohio public-utilities laws was rushed through the General Assembly under the guise that it would ensure modernity, consumer choice and a consequent bonanza of savings to both industry and consumers, many of us doubted that the promised benefits would materialize.
