Retail Electric Choice Needed Says Nobel Laureate

Dr. Vernon Smith received the Nobel Prize for Economics in October 2002 for his work developing the field of experimental economics, including recent research in competitive electricity markets. Take a minute or so and read on for Dr. Smith's view on electric choice, a customer's view of the benefits of choice in Texas, and to answer the question: how many megawatts of retail load is competitively served in the US? (More than you think!)

"The key policy need is to remove restrictions on the entry of competing retail energy suppliers." -- October 28, 2002, Wall Street Journal

"There's no reason the provider of the wires has to be the provider of the energy. What we need is a system where entrepreneurial types can come in and compete and try out different things, including the demand-interrupt system. Some will lose money and go broke. Some will hit it big." October 9, 2002

"A well-established finding in experimental economics is that institutions matter because the rules matter, and the rules matter because incentives matter."