Comment: Your post would be

Your post would be interesting if cities and counties had real market competition in the public electricity market. I do agree that their is a good amount of fear mongering but a good amount of fear mongering is healthy because it puts pressure on these companies and brings to light certain privacy issues whether short term or long term. The long term effects are far more interesting to me because of the further expansion of smart meter technology and of the further along electronics will be with complying with them and having software that works with these monolithic power-web grids. This type of technology can be used for both good and evil but when it is used in a "market", that has a monopoly on public electricity you will see it used more for evil (control) more so than good... Now I'm talking about the possible long-term effects if we are not responsible individuals and consumers. It is important to bring up these issues now because they will have an effect on the outcome of things to come. A healthy dose of fear prepares us and makes us seek out knowledge... and that knowledge that we obtain replaces that fear and gives us more individual power so we can make better decisions for our future. Don't fear the fear... Embrace it and turn it in to knowledge.