As Demand For Electricity Falls, Utilities Look To Electric Cars To Save Them
To understand the way the utility industry in America is structured, you have to look back in time to the railroads. When Manifest Destiny and the “iron horse” were transforming the prairies, titanic battles between captains of industry resulted in a welter of competing railroad companies. Competition led to the demise of many. When the age of electricity began, America decided it was better to allow utility companies to operate as vertically integrated monopolies than to have two or more competitors building power plants, putting poles in the ground, and stringing wires everywhere.