PRI launches website to make case for increased energy competition
Aiming to provide market-based analyses and perspective to educate policymakers and the public about policies impacting competitive electricity markets, the Pacific Research Institute – a California-based, nonpartisan, free-market think tank – launched the "Electricity Reality Report."
The new website – www.electricityrealityreport.org – will be regularly updated with news and analysis on policy, market, and technology trends that affect our nation's ability to power American homes and businesses with reliable, low-cost energy.
"Government electricity monopolies deprive customers of choice and lower costs, while preventing power suppliers from providing cheaper and more reliable service," said Dr. Wayne Winegarden, PRI senior fellow in business and economics.
"The Electricity Reliability Report aims to make the case that to grow into the future and meet the demands of consumers and the economy, we must move away from monopolies toward competitive electricity markets, said Winegarden. "Competition will bring more affordable service and help us better address climate change."
Content on the Electricity Reality Report will be centered around the following core principles:
- Americans want reliable, affordable, and clean electricity, and competition can deliver these desires faster and more effectively than monopolies.
- Electricity choice will deliver lower costs, in contrast to current power monopolies that impose high – and seemingly ever-increasing costs – on consumers.
- Competition shifts risks from customers to investors, which moves away from the status quo where customers are forced to pay for poor decision-making by utilities.
- Based on recent history, choice will bring about climate solutions and lower emissions more quickly and innovatively than power monopolies.
- Competition will bring a stronger, more innovative power grid, facilitating smart investments in infrastructure, conservation, battery storage and demand response.
- As recent experience has shown, government-regulated power monopolies too often result in corruption, which hurts customers.
The Electricity Reality Report will also produce blog commentary, issue briefs, and regular e-mail updates with its latest research and analysis on policies and trends.