Jun. 11--So Dominion Virginia Power plans to hike residential rates by 10 percent or more next year, huh? No big deal. This is the age of deregulation. We'll simply opt for another supplier. Choices. That's what's great about a free market.

Huh? What do you mean there are no other choices?

Right, bucko, things didn't work out quite as planned. The competition never showed up. Dominion Virginia remains a de facto monopoly. They play, you pay. Take it or leave it.

Airlines were deregulated (1978). Railroads and motor carriers were deregulated (1980). So why not energy? That was the thinking, at any rate. With the U.S. electric industry viewed as the great government-sanctioned monopoly, surely something could be done to invest this business with some honest-to-goodness competition - you know, so you could pick your power supplier the same way you pick among telephone carriers.

So Dominion persuaded the Virginia General Assembly in 1998 to enter the brave new world of energy deregulation, premised on the notion, of course, that competition would emerge and consumers would be free to power up the toaster with any number of alternative sources.

In no time at all, however, the State Corporation Commission (that's the three-person panel long responsible for oversight of the power business in Virginia) was noting that, "The right to choose has not yet evolved into the ability to choose ... there is little competitive activity in the Commonwealth."

And now, as we enter the summer of 2006, has anything changed much? Nope.

The Dominion lobby, aware of the discrepancy between promises made and results delivered, is busy of late. Recently, three essays appeared in the Sunday commentary section of the Richmond Times- Dispatch, respectively authored by Tom Farrell, president and CEO of Dominion Resources; Bernard McNamee, a Richmond lawyer; and long- serving state Sen. John Watkins, a Chesterfield County Republican.

Funny thing about these three essays. They all say the same thing, in so many words. Allow us to summarize their conclusions (please cue Bobby McFerrin): "Don't worry, be happy."

The Farrell-McNamee-Watkins argument is artfully crafted. Under the new arrangement, it is claimed, prices are reasonable, service is reliable and the system is efficient.

Only one thing: You could say as much for the old system.

Which raises a point. Why not go back to the old system? Exactly whose interests are being served in the great deregulation push, especially in light of the fact that the one essential component for deregulation - competition - has not appeared? Is there a point at which Dominion and its allies concede that things, well, didn't work out as advertised and maybe, just maybe, some reconsideration is due?

The electric rate hikes are coming, and there's precious little anyone can do about it. But to those who continue to ride the energy deregulation bandwagon, just lay off the blather, OK? Stop romancing the dream denied. Get straight with people on what's doable and not doable and then, perhaps, consumers will not see their soaring bills as a betrayal.