A Populist Critique of Kennewick’s Power Rates
Reader C. Puderbaugh challenges the local economic status quo, questioning why Kennewick residents pay ten times the price for electricity compared to taxpayers in Tacoma or Cleveland.
The story, cleaned up
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I was very jubilant in looking over Mr. W. M. Clements’ article on power, but it is about one-half of the truth by my experiences. Why can the city of Tacoma furnish power at one cent per kilowatt and have a surplus of a quarter-million over cost? And how can Cleveland, Ohio, sell it at one cent to one-fourth of a cent per kilowatt? Poor Kennewick will pay 10 cents per kilowatt with plenty of water near by! The people could take over the water power in the state of Washington and generate power enough to heat, light, and furnish power for the whole state at lower than the Cleveland rate. Labor is the basis of all value, not somebody’s stolen goods.
“Poor Kennewick will pay 10 cents per kilowatt with plenty of water near by!”
Puderbaugh’s 1916 critique of utility monopolies echoes contemporary debates in Kennewick regarding the cost of living and the role of municipal versus private power. His focus on labor as the root of value remains a sharp, classic entry in the long-running argument over who controls the public utility landscape.
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