Bryan, that is very interesting and a good point. I would like to know your
sources to look into this some more. However, we should go off-line so as
not to bore the list.
Public utilities, using the "right of eminent domain" can confiscate
resources. You may know that under the state master plan, riparian water
rights were eliminated in California in the mid 80's. Essentially any
property with a "blue line creek" on the map, no longer has any right to the
water that has been on their land forever. SMUD may have a slight cost
advantage here :-) SMUD is also installing water meters. Now there are two
kind so water consumers. Users with unlimited water for a flat fee and users
with a metered rate. That makes a comparison of value very difficult. Lets
not talk about the Owens Valley and the L.A. DWP. ;-) I believe there are
other Public Utility Districts. San Francisco PUD (both water and power)
comes to mind and is very cost effective.
I found this interesting. Nebraska is the only state that relies 100% on
public generation of electricity. It manages to be only the 10th lowest in
cost per KWH. http://www.neo.state.ne.us/statshtml/115.htm
-Elon
-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan Savage Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 8:59 PM
. . . The two Publicly owned utilities, SMUD and L.A. DWP, charge about 10%
less for for natural gas, water and electricity than the private companies
in California.. . . these two. . . GOVERNMENT RUN (they are the only
publicly owned utilities in California)...
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