Beginning of Essay
The electric utility industry began in the late 1870's as street lighting and electric railway business by private electric companies. Through the years it has grown to become one of the nation's largest business enterprises. Some municipally owned electric syst ....

Middle of Essay
.... the projects was sold commercially. In 1932, private electric companies owned 93 percent of the generating capacity in the country (Weidenbaum 1995). Today private electric utility companies own over three-fifths of the electric power industry when measured by sales or generation of electricity. The remainder consists of the federal government, municipalities, state and district agencies, and cooperatives (Weidenbaum 1995). The movement toward regulation of electric power resulted from two basic factors. The consolidation in the early 1900s of competing utilities often produced price fixing, and attempts to introduce competition would increase uni ....