From the August 7, 1930 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly, a relevant opinion on the value of regulation. In that issue, editor Henry Spurr, my predecessor, said this:
“All things considered, I think the Commissions have functioned remarkably well as originally intended.
I was born in the summer of 1952. Yup, that was a while ago.
The per-kilowatt-hour price of electricity averaged about one and two-thirds cents halfway through that last year of the Harry Truman Administration. This summer, sixty-seven years later, the average price of electricity is around eight times higher, about thirteen cents.
But all consumer goods and services cost more now. On average, nearly ten times more. The Consumer Price Index is 9.7 times greater this summer than in the summer of 1952.