Continuing my thoughts on the future of Portland General Electric, one reason that the state should work toward buying PGE from Enron is that the state of Oregon doesn’t have a lot of large companies headquartered here. Large companies provide a certain value to their home towns not just in tax revenues (and in any case PGE wasn’t paying any taxes under Enron’s ownership) but in civic involvement. Executives serve on boards and contribute to local causes. Other employees volunteer for worthy organizations. We may not be able to fight consolidation in banking and retail, but we can, as a state, insist that our utility companies stay here.
Here’s a thought: how about giving Scottish Power five years or so to return PP&L to local ownership? And then let’s work on the phone company.