Power brokers: What’s really behind your soaring utility bills

Harper’s Magazine: As in Roosevelt’s time, utility commissions broadly fail to rein in the entities they oversee, allowing utilities to amass increasingly large profits. A recent study published by the American Economic Liberties Project estimates the utility sector takes in $50 billion each year in excess profit, $300 per US household. From 2021-24, utilities set yearly records for rate-­increase requests. Rate hikes in 2023 were 9X what the sector asked for in 2000…