"Some blame deregulation for the rolling blackouts, soaring spot market prices, and utility bankruptcies that sprang from the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001. But this anger is misplaced. California has never experienced true deregulation. The "deregulation" implemented in 1996 left price controls in place and created "artificial" markets ripe for manipulation and disparities between supply and demand.

By setting price caps below market prices, California limited the profitability of the industry. When wholesale energy costs increased, the price caps prevented energy producers from passing them on to consumers. Wholesale prices rose dramatically for a number of reasons: natural gas prices rose, hot weather in the Southwest increased demand, a relative lack of water in the Northwest minimized the production of hydroelectric energy, and pollution-control permits, which allow industrial companies that produce less pollution than allowed by regulations to sell the difference as "credits" to higher-pollution-producing companies, rose ten-fold, from $4 to $40.

The price caps additionally discouraged potential producers from entering the market and increasing competition, and they discouraged existing producers from investing profits in adding capacity, of which Californians were (and continue to be) in dire need. As a result of the price caps and pressure from politicians and environmentalists, the building of plants and transmission lines slowed dramatically and energy producers were not able to keep up with demand, particularly in the Silicon Valley, where the booming computer and "dot-com" industries led to even sharper increases in electricity demand."

Source: http://mises.org/story/1954

They should line some of those Enron bastards up against a wall and shoot them.

Steller, you are one blind son of (a gun - edited for stupidity).

Documents released Monday by the Federal Energy Regulation Commission revealed Enron Corporation deliberately created real and imaginary shortages during the 2000-2001 California energy crisis, in order drive up prices and reap vast profits in the state’s newly deregulated energy market.

[.....]

Bush administration officials repeated Enron’s claims that California’s problems were caused by the state’s “flawed” deregulation plan—which was not “free market” enough—and strict environmental standards, which limited the construction of new power plants. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney publicly opposed price controls, insisting that any such moves would be a disincentive for power companies to operate in the state.

Several weeks after the memos were written outlining the company’s strategy to manipulate California’s market, Enron CEO Kenneth Lay—the largest single contributor to Bush’s political career—successfully prompted the Bush administration to appoint free-market advocate Pat Wood as the head of the Federal Energy Regulation Commission. Once in place, Wood resisted the implementation of price controls for months while the crisis spun out of control.

World Socialist Web Site

"Country First" my ass.

Libertarianism is utopia. Money is power, when you have a lot you buy state power(legitimate violence), I see no way to get around that.

^rule of law

But the rule of law or specifically legislation is continual augmented by powerful lobby firms on behalf of interested parties both at Washington legally and in other ways through political contributions.

Not to mention the slow and gradual nullification of the powers that federal agencies have in regulating these companies.

see also:

http://www.videosift.com/video/Enron-The-Smartest-Guys-In-The-Room-Trailer

http://www.videosift.com/video/Enron-The-Smartest-Guys-in-the-Room

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_loophole

Gasoline and electricity are two completely different things. We've seen time and time again that utilities need to be regulated, gasoline does not.

Gas companies don't have a monopoly. High gas prices will only drive the free market toward other options. This is a good thing. It's not in the oil companies' best interests to inflate prices. They'll be sorry...all because of American Ingenuity and free market opportunities.

Gas companies may not have a monopoly, but they do have a cabal.

And they can, and will, use their obscene profits to undermine any and every effort to shift our energy dollars away from their cash registers.

In the past eight years the oil companies, thanks to the oil men in the White House, have seen both their profits skyrocket and their tax burden lighten.

The free market had little or nothing to do with that.

The "fixed market" did.

You should never privatize basic needs such as power, water and healthcare.

>> ^ElJardinero:
You should never privatize basic needs such as power, water and healthcare.


why not? we have privatized food

Huh? The fact that you credit the "oil men in the White House" proves to us where your beef is. It's the governments fault we don't have alternative fuel options, right?

Who are you to say that the oil companies can't make a lot of money? The government makes more money per gallon at the pump than the oil companies who drill, refine, and transport it make. Who is making ridiculous profits?


Explain to me again how the free market doesn't dictate the price of a barrel of gasoline?


>> ^rougy:
Gas companies may not have a monopoly, but they do have a cabal.
And they can, and will, use their obscene profits to undermine any and every effort to shift our energy dollars away from their cash registers.
In the past eight years the oil companies, thanks to the oil men in the White House, have seen both their profits skyrocket and their tax burden lighten.
The free market had little or nothing to do with that.
The "fixed market" did.