Snow brought down some of the trees that the Millionaires for Obama in our Lincoln, Massachusetts neighborhood like to hug. The trees took the power lines with them and about half of our friends/neighbors were without power for more than 24 hours. I posted on Facebook that “If we were a high-income mostly-white community the government and the local electricity monopoly (Eversource) would have responded vigorously. #suburbanlivesmatter”
I searched on Twitter and it turns out that this hashtag is seldom used. Is it time to start a movement?
[Separately, the Russians in our household expressed disbelief that eight inches of snow could take out power for 116,000 homes in Massachusetts. “All of the power lines are underground in Russia,” they noted, “and losing power like this is unheard of.” I reminded them that everything is better in the U.S. A visiting friend from Holland remarked “This would never happen in Holland; powerlines are mostly underground and the above-ground ones are well-maintained.”]
Resolution: We got our power back after about 38.5 hours.
Another win for European socialism, or outright Communism. Another lose for “I’m getting mine at your expense” Capitalism. If the original builders of the electrical grid had a motive other than profit, such as pride in their community (social capital), then perhaps we Americans would have as good of an electric grid as those which exist in countries where work is motivated by more than just profits alone. Instead we are Bowling Alone, with a deficit of social capital, and some of the lowest rates of trust among our fellow citizens in American history – tell me, if you don’t trust your neighbor, then what incentive do you have to do you best for them? Without trust, people do the bare minimum.
What are some foreign countries electrical rates, I wonder?
San Francisco has a program to bury eyesore overhead power lines, starting with the tourist areas. With its princely budget of $3M a year, they should be finished within two centuries.
Mitchell: I don’t think a failure of capitalism is the only explanation for why Americans can’t or don’t run a reliable power grid. One reason could be simple incompetence. https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2015/05/25/u-s-versus-german-infrastructure-spending-and-results/ references an article about how we spend much more and get much less than do the Germans when it comes to infrastructure of all types.
A regulated monopoly electric utility is not an example of pure market dynamics. Perhaps Europeans are better at not having the regulators and the monopoly become pals? Perhaps there is no revolving door over there.
In theory, it should be in the interest of the utility shareholders to decommission the power poles, and create buried lines, as this would be a capital investment subject to 7-15% risk free return per year, whereas the power poles are likely depreciated already.
In Houston, 25 years ago, I observed (or perhaps concluded from limited observations) that bad neighborhoods had utility poles, whereas good neighborhoods didn’t. 15 years ago, when Peter Huber still wrote for Forbes, he lamented that his posh subdivision was unable to get underground power lines, despite willingness to pay.
I guess there is some conflicting information around. Perhaps the electric utility simply does not experience the same pleasure in disrupting traffic as do transportation departments and police departments?
Scottsdale Arizona city council started a total undergrounding program back in 1975ish when it was a tiny town. They basically told all the developers and housing subdivisions that were being planned (plus all the older areas as well) they had to underground all the power lines. This effort took about 20 years and several bond issues and other funding efforts to completely remove the overhead lines. This effort (in conjunction with a very restrictive sign ordinance) drove the property values up dramatically. It also made the town look great. Today Scottsdale is one of the best cities to live in in the US. It is still a small town but has a world wide reputation due to these efforts.
Those efforts caused much of east Phoenix and Tempe to also underground all new stuff and lots of old stuff as well. So most of east metro Phoenix also has mostly underground utilities. This makes the total area look so much nicer. It is one of the key attractions for the overall area.
If you underground the lines, the guys who climb the lines for repairs don’t get to climb anything for repairs. And they’re unionized, IIRC.
Dutch person here: one reason why all our power lines are underground is that the muddy ground makes its very easy to do so (many of us live in a “polder”, the bottom of a former lake or sea). If the ground is only slightly rocky then the price difference with stringing wires along poles increases quickly.
@Mark: I can tell you since I just looked over my yearly electricity usage report. Here in southern Germany, monthly costs are 10 euros + 27 cents per kWh + 20% VAT. For a family of four in an apartment, it might be something like 75-85 euros per month.
10-12 cents per kwh is still pretty common in most of America.
I watch Tour de France every year. As an avid amateur photographer I notice things like 90% of race shots have no overhead power lines. Especially out in the beautiful French countryside.
I also enjoy shooting the iconic “white church on the town green” throughout New England. Very few without ugly overhead wires.
In my small, rural housing cluster (built 1975) power is underground. Power goes above ground when it meets the state road. One hundred years ago New England was mostly small farms. Not many roadside trees. Now New England is the most forested region in the United States. It’s a full time effort to keep trees trimmed along roadside and power lines.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/08/31/new-england-sees-return-forests-and-wildlife/lJRxacvGcHeQDmtZt09WvN/story.html
My guess is that there’s an electrician shortage. Let’s get some H1-bs going.
I wonder to what extent it is
a). book-keeping related – some utilities, being regulated, have to use very long depreciation schedules and thus heavy up-front investment is effectively discouraged
b). they make money, a certain dollar amount per pole (and there are many poles) when a company wants to put their lines on the utility poles. In PA it was $180 per pole for a lifetime usage or a few dollars per month in perpetuity. Next time you are out and about, try to figure out if e.g. fiber (usually has an orange marker on it) or other non-electric utility lines are on any poles 5x non-electric lines @ $180 per = $900 per pole.
PhilG, I would attest that the revolving door you fault for the lack of adequate regulation/creation of monopolies is a sole product of capitalism. The reason why politicians leave the political world to become lobbyists is to make the kind of money they could never make in politics, it is a profit motive which biases our political system. Remove the profits then what incentive is there to be a lobbyist? The only incentive is what I have to lobby, being a concerned citizen who wants to see a better America. Without profit, you are left with other types of capital, such as social capital; monied capital often comes to replace all other types (reward replacing intrinsic value).
A perfect example is Robert Rubin, who worked for Goldman Sachs until he became President Clinton’s Secretary of the Treasury and repealed the Glass-Steagal Act and made other tweaks required to manifest the market crash of 2008. After leaving the White House in 1999, he joined CitiGroup (a merger that never could have happened before he was in office and make the tweaks he did) and they handsomely paid him nearly $130 million.
There is no more blatant example of capitalism creating the revolving door and manifesting the worst market crash since the Great Depression than that of Robert Rubin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rubin#Clinton_administration