The average American utility company nets around 10% return on equity, IIRC. 30-year Treasury bonds can be had today around 4.6%, with none of the risk or headaches of operating a business. Hardly a bastion of profitability.
I agree residential electric infrastructure in the US is not nearly as good as it could be. Buried power lines in suburban environments alone could probably cut outage numbers at least by half; but as one of the first countries in the world to electrify, doing that is a lot more expensive than in developing countries. Sometimes there is such a thing as a first-mover disadvantage!
I agree residential electric infrastructure in the US is not nearly as good as it could be. Buried power lines in suburban environments alone could probably cut outage numbers at least by half; but as one of the first countries in the world to electrify, doing that is a lot more expensive than in developing countries. Sometimes there is such a thing as a first-mover disadvantage!