Matthew Gonzales, CEA’s Southwest Executive Director, examines the costly and misguided history of utility municipalization, and why it ultimately costs families and businesses more money through higher rates.
Barely 15% of these government takeover attempts have succeeded, and two of the nine municipalized utilities identified in a 2019 report subsequently sold the assets back to the incumbent provider. In almost 90% of cases, the economics don’t justify having the city take over the electric utility, and in several instances when the economics seemed sensible, deteriorating finances resulted in the city reversing course.
Read more – Heartland Daily News
