Utilities Held Down Spending On Upkeep

Why do we insist on deregulating industries that are vital to our way of life, such as electrical power? And then why are we shocked when the companies that take over start to cheap out on infrastructure spending?

Then, when a storm hits and predictably knocks untrimmed trees into power lines, and customers of Dominion Virginia Power and Pepco are without power for several days at a time, the companies respond with "This was, like, the worst storm in our 102-year history!" when it clearly wasn't that bad.