Hey Norm,
No doubt, when there were 500 companies for almost each and every item/bank/insert whatever other business you can name (which seemed to be the case when I was a kid anyway), I am sure that was the case. Unfortunately, now that a handful of companies at best are involved in every sector, there is no competition. Not to mention that every power company doesn't have their own power plant, so they have to buy energy from someone else, who in turn are ripping the system off. And then we get to contracts the governments have signed with mining companies for gas etc, and the contracts that THOSE companies have signed with China etc...
Electricity should be dirt cheap in this country, when you factor in our resources, even without coal (and you see how the prices were going through the roof even before Coal became evil, so its absence today would really make no difference pricewise), of Gas, and this country should be paying less for it than water. On top of that, we have the ability to have more solar energy than just about anyone else on earth, so even before battery storage comes into its own (which I believe is still a ways off), you could cover a sh*t tonne of baseload generation during the daylight hours with Gas ready and waiting to deal with the shortfall and night times.
But as we have sold our gas and gas rights to China and others, we don't actually even 'own' the gas that is still in the ground, because it is already signed off for in overseas contracts.
Our national fuel reserves are also in the toilet, so in the event of a major catastrophy or war, we have less than a months supply to power even essential industries and services.
That my friend is a true banana republic.
Ah, thats better.
(puts the soapbox away)
