Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Sunday, July 27, 2008 10:38:20 PM
The six big energy companies in Europe are being accused of
price collusion...sort of.
British Gas, npower, Scottish Power, E.ON and SSE, as well as EDF, - are accused of operating in a cosy world of minimal price competition. This created an environment where it was “easy for those players to make informed judgments about the behaviour of their competitors. This alone can distort competition without any actual collusion occurring.”
Sounds exactly like what is happening here. Has not everyone's bill here in the U.S. gone up roughly 75% over the last five years or so?
Xcel Energy, here in Colorado, has asked for an increase in both electricity and gas nearly every year; sometimes twice. I don't think the Colorado Utilities Commision has ever questioned the increases. We just get told that prices will be going up.
Energy seems to be the problem, whether it is supply, demand, price collusion, enviromentalists, global warming, or countries trying to escape the third world designation. We need energy for the human race to function as we do. Without it, we die.