Michael Giberson
I was interested when one of the local news shows ended their 6 o’clock news segment yesterday on the proposed purchase of Xcel’s Lubbock electric system by Lubbock Power & Light by saying, “Coming up tonight on NewsChannel 11 at ten we hear from an economist and teacher who tells us the other side of the issue and how citizens and taxpayers could be affected.”
“Good,” I thought to myself, so far we’ve heard what the city and the utility think, so let’s see “the other side of the issue.” I anticipated they would talk to one of my colleagues across campus at the economics department, but there are a few other economists in town.
Here is what we saw on the 10 o’clock news:
“To have everything in one hand is scary to some,” says former stock broker and Lubbock High School AP economics teacher…. She says this deal is all about efficiency.
“But what we do know is this type of monopoly is present in almost every city in America. It is so expensive to build infrastructure of electric company that it’s best to put it one place,” adds Moore.
The efficiency of monopoly? Huh? The news segment then jumped to quoting from the president of the regional Xcel operating unit, who said the biggest change will be the elimination of the two sets of power lines.
Other side of the issue??? No, this is the city’s official story. What happened to “how citizens and taxpayers could be affected”?
I guess I’ll go see what news the morning newspaper has to offer.