Authored by Linnea Leuken & H. Sterlin Burnett via RealClearPolitics, When electric power was a novel idea and just beginning to be adopted in urban centers, the industry had a Wild West feel to it as multiple companies strung wires, opened power plants, and sold electricity on an unregulated market. Competition was fierce, but state and local governments concluded that the inefficiencies and redundancies endangered the public and imposed higher costs. So states set up service territories with monopolistic or oligopolistic service providers,…
