The fuel that powered the U.S. from the industrial revolution into the iPhone era is being pushed aside as utilities switch to cleaner and cheaper alternatives.

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This spending is discretionary, the authors note, because utilities can just switch to gas instead.

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Electric utilities that can switch to natural gas are switching.

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Switch utilities for a better deal.

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After Tepco raised its rates in April last year, some companies in its service area approached neighboring utilities in an effort to switch, according to Nikkei.

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Such a switch remains difficult so long as utilities retain an iron grip on the transmission lines in their geographic areas, and the utilities are wary of starting price wars with each other.

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In the 1970s industrial users could switch to oil or electricity, and utilities had other choices, including coal, hydroelectric and even nuclear power.

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Of course, falling prices for solar inputs and equipment are good for consumers who want to switch to solar, as well as utilities that want to up their renewable energy share.

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To that point, the utilities commission has hired an outside investigator to examine Duke's CEO switch.

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Utilities, however, are concerned about being able to recover the investment needed to switch to this new technology, and about potential backlash when customers see on their bills that they are paying much more to run their air conditioners on so-called "critical" days--like the dog days of August.

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