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Chris Bataille proposed returning to a regulated monopoly model with average-cost…

2026-08-02 · 03:35 UTC ·@duncancampbell ·0 min read

Brief

Duncan Campbell (2026-08-02) disputes Chris Bataille's proposal to reintroduce a regulated monopoly with North American average-cost pricing and controlled generation competition, arguing the idea depends on a false premise—that there is a fixed, universally implementable set of correct choices—and that centralizing decisions risks burdening a region on one entity's ability to be right.

Why it matters

Chris Bataille proposed returning to a regulated monopoly model with average-cost pricing across North America and controlled generation competition to make electricity production, transmission, and cost problems more tractable.

Key details

  • @duncancampbell (2026-08-02) rejects that assertion, arguing the proposal wrongly assumes a fixed set of 'correct' choices that everyone can understand and implement and warns against subjecting a region to the risk of one single entity having to get policy choices right.
Source evidence

IMO it’s impossible to assert this. It assumes there are a fixed set of correct choices that all can understand and are capable of implementing, so it’s just a matter of doing “the right things”.

This is very much not the case. Do not subject a region to the probability of one single entity getting it right.

Chris Bataille (@bataille_chris)

Just to throw a grenade into the void, a lot of our electricity production, transmission, & cost problems would go away, or at least be much more tractable, if we returned to a regulated monopoly model with average cost pricing across North America, w/ controlled gen competition.

— https://nitter.net/bataille_chris/status/2083250131013337162#m