Let’s start this one with honesty: We got one detail wrong. And in Falmouth, getting something wrong is a rare event, mostly because city hall and its electric utility make “wrong” a full-time job.
A big thanks to Ben Wolfe, a sharp reader who pointed out that the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) does not regulate municipally-owned utilities like Falmouth Electric. That distinction matters and it changes the story.
But not in the way city officials might hope. Because what this actually means is far worse. No Regulator. No Watchdog. No Standards. Falmouth Electric, the same utility that leaves residents blacked out, hung up on, and dangerously exposed during emergencies, operates in a PSC-free zone. That’s right. While investor owned utilities like Duke or Kentucky Utilities are required to answer to the state, Falmouth Electric answers to…
Falmouth Electric. Same with the water to a degree.
Thanks to a law written in 1936, municipal utilities are largely exempt from PSC oversight. Unless they’re building new infrastructure or selling power wholesale, the PSC doesn’t touch them.
In practice? That means no outside regulation of rates. No enforced service standards. No requirement to maintain modern emergency communication systems.
And absolutely no one to call when the lights go out except the same people responsible for the outage in the first place. You get the illusion of service. You pay real bills. You get Monopoly-tier accountability.
Let’s Be Blunt: They Know It Too
The city knows the PSC can’t touch them. They know they’re flying under the radar. They know you have nowhere else to go for power. And that’s why the Falmouth Electric Office closes before dinnertime, can’t return voicemails, and has a documented habit of leaving emergency callers stuck with nothing but a recording.
Meanwhile, outages drag on, infrastructure remains prehistoric, and no one , no one is held responsible.
Not the mayor.
Not city council.
Not the utility heads.
And definitely not whoever programmed the ghost of a voicemail system that chokes when it’s needed most.
The Solution: Regionalize It or Privatize It
If a municipal utility can’t or won’t do its job, there are only two sane paths forward:
1. Regionalize It.
Merge Falmouth Electric with a larger, more capable regional municipal or co-op utility. Let oversight, funding, and professionalism scale with need.
This has been done across Kentucky with great success. Smaller towns join utility districts that know how to operate 24/7, maintain emergency systems, and novel concept, answer the damn phone.
2. Privatize It, But With Safeguards.
If Falmouth leadership refuses to modernize or be held accountable, then let a regulated utility take over.
Let Duke or Blue Grass Energy take the wheel because at least then, someone would be driving.
Yes, it would require a public vote. Yes, it would come with transition pains. But right now? You’re paying public dollars for third-world service and 1930s logic.
The Bottom Line
Thanks again to Ben Wolfe for the correction. But in this case, that correction lit a bigger fuse. The real story isn’t that Falmouth Electric is unregulated. The story is that it’s allowed to be this bad without consequence. No PSC. No shame. And for far too long, no pushback. That ends now.
We’ll keep pushing.
You keep watching.
And to the city officials reading this through gritted teeth: You’re not untouchable. You’re just overdue.
Whisper One Out