Load-balancing incentives let utilities justify practices Congress later outlawed.

Evidence

The industry’s defenders countered that the system of promotional rates and payments to builders ultimately contributed to the public good: By allowing utility companies to build a more balanced and efficient load, the incentives helped to lower electric rates for everyone. Some states accepted the industry’s argument; others did not. Thus, in much of the country, utility companies continued the hard sell until 1978, when federal legislation outlawed the most controversial marketing practices. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 278

Categorization

• XREF: Load-balancing rate design echoes the tiered-rate story and dovetails with Eco-Justice course themes of how industrial incentives operate behind environmental choices.