I think there's two questions:

• Are for-profit utilities a good thing - Probably not, especially as many currently function. At minimum, they need tighter regulation or better market design/structure.

• Are the things you're holding up as examples a significant part of the increase in your utility costs this year - Nope.

The latter is basically my objection to your framing.

> need to pay $644M of dividends to shareholders with our money for three quarters in 2022

Their dividend last year was $0.6025/share, this year it's $0.6325/share. I'll also note that dividend payments are a big part of the market appeal of a utility company - they're not and can't be high growth businesses. They're supposed to pay out a modest, steady profit to shareholders.

> give their CEO a 28% raise in one year?

It's not particularly clear to me that the CEO got a 28% raise. This indicates the previous guy made $19.8m in 2019. So has this guy received a 28% raise from last year or a 70% pay cut from the last guy?

Realistically, the answer is probably neither given how much of their pay is tied to stock grants/stock market performance, but it's why I find these kinds of metrics - especially on a year to year basis, dumb arguments.