There was no place for choice or self-sufficiency and no reward for conservation or efficiency. Carter may have championed less rather than more, but before his legislation began to force change upon the status quo, acts of conservation or efficiency were without reward. One could use less power, but because of the tiered rate structures that charged the most for the first few kilowatt-hours used in any given billing period—a system put into place by Samuel Insull—these efforts were only minimally reflected in the dollar amount owed on the bill.
