Peggie Hall wrote:

anonymous wrote:
On Wed, 01 Oct 2003 19:37:50 GMT, Peggie Hall said:


That may have to do with the source of their electricity. If it's
supplied by an electric cooperative--which are common in rural areas,
neither the co-op nor its customers are allowed to make a profit...as
you said, they can only pass along their actual costs.


Classic example of what happens when you get the misguided guvmint involved.
Of course they make a profit by supplying the electricity. They just have to
charge more to the users who don't use it instead of just the ones who do.

Classic example of mouth engaging without brain. Electric co-ops are
"member" owned...the only thing the gov't has to do with 'em is the
regulation against making a profit. In fact, co-ops usually supply power
at a much cheaper rate than for-profit publicly owned electric companies.

When I was farming I bought supplies and electricity from co-op.s.
Suppliers like Southern States set prices to avoid loss so there was
always a little profit left at the end of each year. That money was paid
back to "producers" (members) pro-rata based on how many $$$ each member
spent with them - an after the fact discount if you will that erased all
profits and made a nice xmas bonus. The electric co-op did the same but
all users were included as members. How that equates to charging
non-users instead of users escapes me.