The issue is that the most likely way forward now is forced nationalization and the taxpayer will end up paying for fixing this mess anyway. So if the taxpayer

The issue is that the most likely way forward now is forced nationalization and the taxpayer will end up paying for fixing this mess anyway. So if the taxpayer is going to pay for fixing it, it might as well have been a public service in the first place, in the last 30 years it just served enriching foreign investment funds and now when the things are dire the taxpayer will foot the bill anyway. The other option is forcing these private companies to fix those issues through legislation, but they will just take the easy route of going bankrupt or they will lobby the government to either give them money or allow them to increase the bills 2-3x so taxpayers will pay for it either way, and shareholders can keep their billions in payouts.