Lights out on federal power: A plan to privatize the PMAs

Journal Article · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1997 · Electricity Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6190(97)80498-8· OSTI ID:569407

Block, M K; Shadegg, J

Privatizing the power marketing administrations makes sense. Unless these federal administrations are sold, taxpayers will continue to subsidize power to the rich, and the PMAs will distort and hinder competition in the electric energy market. Employ this plan today and it will be possible to achieve benefits for all stakeholders. If there were a book entitled Privatization in The United States, it would be very thin indeed. It would be so partly because America did not participate as extensively as most countries in this century`s destructive experiment where governments produced goods that would be more efficiently produced by the private sector. Unfortunately, the book also would be thin because Americans have been less aggressive and imaginative than countries from Great Britain to Bolivia in withdrawing their national government from activities better suited to the private sector. One obvious target for immediate privatization is the federal electric power resources. This article proposes a politically viable plan to expand privatization in America by selling three of the federal government`s power marketing administrations. The PMAs, as they are known to the cognoscenti, market power generated by federally owned dams. Currently, the federal government is the nation`s largest producer and transmitter of electricity. While the government`s involvement in the electricity industry was once justified, these reasons no longer exist.

• OSTI ID: 569407
• Journal Information: Electricity Journal, Journal Name: Electricity Journal Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 10; ISSN 1040-6190; ISSN ELEJE4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
COMMERCIAL SECTOR
COMPETITION
DEREGULATION
ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
US ORGANIZATIONS