From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Jun 19 2001 - 11:02:40 MDT
Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> Randy Smith wrote,
> > The failure of energy deregulation should make us reconsider
> > blind faith in
> > the market -- and take a second look at public power systems like the one
> > that lights up Hollywood.
>
> This is the problem with blind faith into anything. Even if a goal or
> principal is perfect, implementation details sometimes go awry. We cannot
> predict success or failure of any specific event based on our faith in the
> technology. My faith in computer technology still can't keep my PC from
> crashing.
Its also a problem with proper labeling. The only part of the market which had
any degree of market freedom, although it did have price controls that were
biased toward high prices instead of against them. The producer/supplier market
was still highly regulated, and no new power plants had been approved or built
in many years, while the retail market was also highly regulated, with elected
PUC officials fixing retail prices low to get reelected, while demand soard by
13% (not to mention that the cost of energy conservation, around 1.5 cents per
kwh, had to be paid for by power consumers, which added more price pressure).
Calling the California power market a free one is a joke, like calling the
Soviet Union a state capitalist economy.
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