Utility rate payers need partial ownership of private electric utilities if they are going to foot the bill for electric grid upgrading and improvement.

To the Editor:

The recent massive power blackout in the Northeast which occurred on 14 August 2003 indicates that we need to make a large financial investment in upgrading and modernizing our electrical distribution system in North America. Bush's Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, has suggested that the consumers and utility rate payers will have to foot the bill for these improvements. If that is going to be the case, then these same consumers and utility rate payers need to receive partial ownership in the form of common stock of the private utilities that are unwilling to invest their own money in these improvements.

Those that make capital investments become the partial owners of the property than has been improved. This is a basic tenet of capitalism. This partial consumer and utility rate payer ownership will be in proportion to the total capital investment currently in the private utilities. Since we now have very powerful computers with exceedingly large permanent memory storage available, there will be no problem calculating fractional share ownership.

When the utility rate payer moves away or otherwise discontinues electrical utility service, their account will be credited and then refunded with the value of their fractional common stock ownership.

So if American consumers and utility rate payers are forced to pay $50,000,000,000 to upgrade the electric power grid, then they will become partial owners of the private electric utilities in proportion to the current total private investment.

Yours truly,

James K. Sayre

18 August 2003