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Re: CA Deregulation
Brian said, in part, :
"It's tempting to think that CA's deregulation law was proposed by pot
smoking hippies trying outlaw profit while idly dreaming about solar power.
It's totally wrong.
"hippies" opposed the plan, it was "pro business" politicians of both parties
that supported it, as did the utilities."
It is incorrect to think that "pot smoking hippies" pushed for deregulation.
Those mellow folk rarely push for anything. Dereg was initially supported by
consumers and their advocates and by people who believed that free market
approaches are preferably to government-sponsored monopolies, as was the case
before dereg. Business came aboard when the dereg plan morphed into
something that appeared to benefit them, which was another form of state
control which would guarantee them profits.
"The DOE report left out why the rate to consumers was fixed in the
first place -- because the IOUs were being paid a premium rate so the public
could pay off their
lousy investments. "
A DOE conspiracy? Or maybe the "lousy investments" in extra generating
capacity looked good at the time and were approved at the various levels of
government, when they were made in the 80's and early 90's? Hindsight is
sooo accurate!
"Leftist ideology? I don't think so. We paid extra for "deregulation"
and now revisionist apologists claim it's all our fault for expecting
"something for nothing". It's
ignorant of the law and ignorant of the facts, and it insults our
intelligence. Go sing that tune to someone stupid enough to believe it."
Deregulation didn't work in CA in part because the government took too much
control away from the industry and gave it to itself. That is a fact, not an
opinion, and it is well supported by the DOE site and by other sources. The
gov't in CA felt that was the best way to "deregulate", but in this case it
wasn't. And that is a leftist approach whether you like it or not.
When CA tries to catch up with other states that have made dereg work, many
of the same problems might occur. If the folks in CA would gain an
understanding of the issues as presented at the DOE site and other places,
perhaps the new plan won't fail as miserably as did the first one.
Regards,
Bill