www.slowboring.com/p/democrats-need-to-think-bigger-on
1 correction found
Utilities in the United States come in three basic formats.
This omits major categories of U.S. electric utilities—especially member-owned electric cooperatives (and also federally owned power authorities). Not all U.S. utilities fit into the three formats listed in the post.
Full reasoning
The post states that U.S. utilities “come in three basic formats,” then lists (1) publicly owned utilities and (2–3) two kinds of investor-owned utilities (vertically integrated and restructured). But U.S. electric utilities also include electric cooperatives (member-owned, not-for-profit utilities) as a distinct and sizable category, so the post’s three-format taxonomy is incomplete/incorrect.
Contradictory evidence
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The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) explains that the retail electricity provider “may be” (a) a municipal utility, (b) an electric cooperative owned by its members, or (c) an investor-owned utility—and separately notes federally owned power authorities (including TVA) also operate. That explicitly identifies cooperatives (and federal power authorities) as categories of providers, not covered by the post’s three “formats.”
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The American Public Power Association likewise describes public power as one of three primary types of electric utilities, alongside rural cooperatives and investor-owned utilities—again contradicting the post’s framing that splits investor-owned utilities into two “formats” while omitting cooperatives.
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America’s Electric Cooperatives (NRECA) describes co-ops as serving tens of millions of people, underscoring they are not a minor edge case that can be ignored when describing “utilities in the United States.”
3 sources
- Delivery to consumers - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
EIA lists retail power sellers as: “A not-for-profit municipal electric utility,” “An electric cooperative owned by its members,” or “A private, for-profit electric utility owned by stockholders (often called an investor-owned utility),” and adds: “A few federally owned power authorities—including the Bonneville Power Administration and the Tennessee Valley Authority…”
- Stats and Facts | American Public Power Association
“Public power utilities are one of three primary types of electric utilities that serve customers in the United States.” The page’s comparison table lists: “Public Power,” “Rural Cooperatives,” and “Investor-Owned Utilities,” and notes it does not show “federal power agencies…”
- Electric Co-op Facts & Figures - America's Electric Cooperatives
“Co-ops serve 42 million people…” and describes hundreds of distribution co-ops and dozens of generation & transmission co-ops, indicating electric cooperatives are a major part of the U.S. utility landscape.