The Gouging Game

Welcome to The Gouging Game.

For a century, utilities were boring infrastructure companies. They dug trenches, strung wires, and earned a modest profit capped by the government. Today, they are financial engineering giants. They have mastered the art of regulatory capture—a process where the agencies meant to police them (like the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission or FERC) end up working for them.

This book is the autopsy of that system. We will look under the hood of NIPSCO’s gas distribution, Exelon’s nuclear subsidies, and the hidden "loss factors" that add 10% to your bill before you even flip a switch. We will prove that your bill is not a receipt for services rendered; it is a calculation of how much the market will bear, disguised as physics.