All of the preceding comments make excellent points. I would add that the government (lawmakers) gets involved in engineering and other utility issues because the utility won’t.
Utilities are like any other big business: maximum profit at minimum cost. PCB’s are an example of an issue that they would have loved to ignored. The trend in big business in the past few decades has been for maximizing profits, thus eliminating education, eliminating incentives for employees with longevity, eliminating workers who know how things work (who needs those high priced union employees?).
Much of this type of reasoning goes back to the elimination of taxes on capital gains, which in turned eliminated the re-investment in the business itself. All of the money made is paid out to shareholders, leaving very little to keep the utility prepared for the future.
We reap what we sew.
Flying Sparks April 25 2011, 9:58 am EDT
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One of the advantages of old age is you can say more of what you actually think. Having been in the utility business for over 40 years, I’ve seen many things. I’ve noticed that many ideas are re-invented every 10 or 20 years and my insight into the fate of some of these ideas is misinterpreted as “unusual insight”. I’m thinking “fool me once…etc.”. There have been any number of things which concern me. 
