It'd be interesting to see some of the risk analysis they did before branching into fiber, particularly for those early cases like Chattanooga. But off the cuff

It'd be interesting to see some of the risk analysis they did before branching into fiber, particularly for those early cases like Chattanooga. But off the cuff, I'd imagine that there was very little risk to the move outside the capital outlays. By contrast, because renewables are forcing what's effectively a paradigm shift in power markets, it makes sense that monopolies--which by their nature are very risk averse--had trouble embracing major investment into renewables. Perhaps it's better to say that, at least when it comes to the primary activities that constitute their monopoly, monopolies are risk averse and embrace change as little as possible. And renewables are the sort of long-term suicide that scares the hell out of any self-respecting monopoly.