Yeah, our power company - BC Hydro - isn't publicly held, so no stock to protect. It's what's called a Crown Corporation - a vestige of our British heritage meaning that it's owned by the government and the people. Employees have pensions and benefits, and because of the reduced profit motive, we pay about $0.083 per kWh (about 6 cents USD).
Another reason the rates are lower is because Hydro sells its surfeit electricity to the US, including... wait for it... northern and central California. The money from this commerce is used, by charter, to reduce the cost of our domestic energy. Information on the whole process is publicly available, again because of the company's structure and governance.
So while everyone sometimes resents any utility company, Hydro does a good job. It's our geography and our weather/climate that are doing us in, just as you say.
We've had rain for the last few days. So good to see the forest undergrowth spring up again. We didn't have a really bad summer, though, as it rained about every 10 days
throughout. We only had a complete ban on power tool use for maybe 5 days in total - a new record from what I'm told. Usually, you can't use them outdoors from July (sometimes June) to mid-Sept.
I'm limbing some trees and picking up all the year's detritus on the forested south side of the property. Lovely work this time of year.
