and the fact that the State will ALWAYS carry the ultimate responsibility (and price tag) for any catastrophic accident, and for long term waste storage and management.
The market is unable to price these subsidies properly, so the State should take the upside as well as the downside. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
(It doesn't hurt when the people ordering the plant are the same as the ones who own the company that designed it, the company that builds it and the bank that financed it.)
The state carries ultimate responsibility for a lot of things it doesn't own (airlines, pharmaceuticals etc etc).
Long term storage in Sweden is both run and financed (partly) by a private (not-for-profit) company (which also does some for-profit international consulting).
I have no problem at all with state ownership in power generation, but if private companies can add value while maintaing standards, then I'm the first to welcome then.
I still don't think a deregulated power market is a good idea though, I think it's a disaster. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Governments are not cure-alls, but the current debacles are primarily brought to us by the Exxons of the world - including their unhealthy level of control of some governments. Time to swing the pendulum; the trick will be to keep and enlarge the democratic components of the process. paul spencer
