Deregulation of the utilities industry brings about competitive energy

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What Is Competitive Energy
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• Deregulation of the utilities industry brings
  about competitive energy options that represent a
  long overdue change in the way the utilities
  industry operates. Before deregulation (and
  currently, for regions still under regulated
  control), single large monopolistic utility
  companies had complete control over the sale and
  distribution of one or more commodities (such as
  electricity, natural gas and water) in their
  region. Thankfully, for a growing list of over
  twenty states that have adopted deregulation in
  favor of competitive energy, this is no longer
  the case.
• Deregulation has opened the door to competitive
  energy by allowing smaller local utility
  providers and commodities brokers to step in and
  take over the billing aspect of the business by
  selling utility services directly to the people
  and organizations that use them. This is as
  opposed to the traditional method of relying on
  regional distributors to purchase and resell
  these types of services in accordance with state
  and local regulations. Such regulations were
  designed to keep prices in check, but due to the
  sheer size and wealth of regional utility
  providers, they had much more control over
  commodity prices than they should have.
• Under deregulation, regional distributors still
  control and maintain the infrastructure and the
  delivery systems in order to ensure that the
  quality, safety, and reliability of provided
  services remains the same for all effected
  consumers. The only thing that deregulation
  changes for consumers in deregulated regions, is
  that they now have the power to choose which
  provider within a competitive energy market best
  suits their needs in terms of cost, service
  availability, and a number of other factors that
  they previously had no ability to control.

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• One of these factors is that under deregulation,
  environmentally conscious consumers now have the
  ability to go green or reduce their carbon
  footprint by choosing a supplier that offers a
  plan with a higher renewable content or even one
  where only (100) renewable sources are used.
  Prior to deregulation and the ensuing competitive
  energy market, the only way to take advantage of
  renewable technologies was for the consumer to
  install and maintain the production equipment on
  their own property, using their own money. For
  most, this is simply not a feasible option as
  they do not have the time, or the money to invest
  in such undertakings. Thus, deregulation has
  quite literally opened the door for progression
  in the renewables sector.
• Progression in the renewables sector also equates
  to advancements in the traditional energy sector
  as increasing use of renewable sources leads to
  innovation as a means to come up with cleaner and
  greener methods of producing commodities and
  reducing or capturing the greenhouse gas
  emissions associated with traditional production
  methods.
• What this all boils down to is that deregulation
  of the utilities industry is a very good thing
  that provides very good results. Not only are
  these results quantifiable by the relatively
  small businesses and brokers that benefit from
  the direct sale of utility services, they also
  equate to savings and more options for consumers,
  and innovation in technologies that make energy
  cleaner and more affordable for all.