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Imaskeet t1_ivfbjf3 wrote

Because the cost of electricity from the wholesale market has doubled in just a year and National Grid (who has to maintain thousands of miles of electrical infrastructure) can't do that while giving you electricity for free/at a loss.

I know corporations can be greedy, but there's seriously bigger issues at play in this case. Right now, utilities across New England are conducting exercises and drills in preparation for having to conduct rolling blackouts this winter due to energy supply shortfalls. Just to give some perspective..

Any profit-driven company would not be planning to resort to measures like that unless absolutely necessary. If you really want to point fingers at corporations, I'd start with the O&G industry first, not utilities.

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JoshSidekick t1_ivgv3vv wrote

> can't do that while giving you electricity for free/at a loss

All the other information, while relevant, not withstanding, would it count as free or at a loss if they only made 2 billion in profits instead of 4 billion, or are us customers the only ones who should suffer the burden?

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CosmicQuantum42 t1_ivhykx0 wrote

Are you willing to work for half your salary?

Even if your hypothetical was true, profit is a critical part of the operation. Why would anyone bother to provide electricity otherwise?

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JoshSidekick t1_ivi17wk wrote

Because it’s an essential resource? And I never said cut salaries. Maybe cut costs to customers instead of increasing dividend payouts. And I’m not even saying cut dividend payouts. Just don’t increase them.

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CosmicQuantum42 t1_ivi43oc wrote

Whatever you do (presumably you are asking for government action) will just make the economics of delivering natural gas and electricity to consumers less attractive. I don't really want any part of that.

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JoshSidekick t1_ivjson4 wrote

Why not? UPS and FedEx are successful and they have the Post Office, right? People that want to send a letter for $0.50, they can, and the people that want to send that same letter for $13 can also.

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Illustrious-Nose3100 t1_ivfl97r wrote

If only we could ship large quantities of LNG to New England… oh wait, we could if not for the Jones Act.

(Of course this wouldn’t fix everything but it’d at least help…ugh).

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