Corruption and mismanagement see much of the US without power

According to OurDC, from 2008 to 2010, Pepco's profit earnings were $882 million, yet they paid no federal or state income taxes and instead received $817 million in tax refunds. At the same time, local authorities allowed Pepco to cut back on maintenance to save money.

There was an attempt last year to take Pepco to task, but the result was a very public slap on the wrist. An investigating commission found that Pepco was not conducting inspections of its sub-transmission and distribution lines even after storms. It also found that the company was about four years behind on the tree-trimming necessary to ensure that the local greenery is not interfering with power lines. Pepco was made to promise a 3% increase in reliability year-on-year (beginning only next year), and it was fined a one-time fee of $1 million for failing to fix problems that led to frequent outages.

Of course, no major changes were enforced and Pepco paid lip service to the situation by submitting a five-year plan for improvements that would cost around $300 million and be passed directly on to the consumer.

Burying power lines would cost between $5 and $15 million per mile. Pepco likes to point out that this would mean an increase in consumer power bills by about $107 per month. The consumer would no doubt like to point out that the power companies' greed and mismanagement, for which the consumer has long been footing the bill, should be rolled in to cover a large chunk of this cost.

As always, disunited, the consumer doesn't have a chance. The consumer will pay for power company greed and neglect unless there is some form Arab-Spring (American Summer) manifestation.