How Private Equity Is Driving Up Your Electric Bill

A guaranteed rate of return with zero risk is number go up nirvana.

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money. You can listen to today’s episode on Apple on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Besides data centers, climate change, and regulatory capture, there is yet another reason utility rates are far outpacing inflation: private equity! On this episode, we try to understand why investor-owned utilities, which provide electricity to the majority of Americans, continue to reap profits at the expense of their customers. These entities are supposed to be regulated by state governments, but why is enforcement often so toothless? And why does venture capital want to get involved in something as thin-margined as utilities?

To answer that, we are joined by Marissa Gillett, a former utility regulator and current senior fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project, along with James Baratta, a writing fellow at The American Prospect. We try to untangle some of the regulatory spaghetti and dig into James’ recent reporting on the venture capital firm Blackstone’s bid to acquire a New Mexico utility, and the stock deal that could undo it if regulators are brave enough to follow the law.

Listen via Apple or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We also provide transcripts and video for every episode. Here is last week’s episode.

Thank you so much for listening. If there’s a monopoly you’d like us to explore, or if you have anything else to tell us, please let us know by leaving a comment or by responding directly to this email.