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[Ron Thigpen <rthigpen AT nc.rr.com>]

Steven Champeon wrote:

> So, I guess CA can expect massive, week-long shortages of gasoline, too?
> I mean, given the rolling brownouts of the past couple of years, I'd
> think a gubernatorial candidate would know better than to hitch his wagon
> to the stellar example of electrical utility regulation, no?

it was deregulation that kicked off the fiasco in CA.  letting wholesale 
prices float is what brought the pigs to the trough.  it would never 
have played out the way it did if the utilities commision had still been 
in the picture.

market forces can be good for efficiency, but you've got to have truly 
open markets: low entry costs, transparent information flows, no natural 
monopolies, etc.  CA's wholesale electricity market was far from open 
and was ripe for manipulation.

the moral of this particular story isn't "industry regulation is always 
an inefficient mire", it's more like "beware free-market deregulatory 
evangelists with vested interests in that market".

--rt