We thought, We'll have so many suppliers that it'll be competitive and benefit the consumers. That was the theory behind all of this. Unfortunately, events conspired to turn things the other way. Those other events included some outside anyone's control, Connors says. The problems began when power prices spiked last summer, sparked by unseasonably warm temperatures that drove up power consumption.
Critics say they're trying to turn out the lights on democracy.
Even the consumer groups' opposition had nothing to do with fears of astronomic jumps in the wholesale price in electricity. The system was designed while there were energy surpluses in California, and its success was predicated on an abundant energy supply, which would lead to fierce competition for energy on the supply side. But what got little attention at the time was the aggressiveness with which the major players in the power plant business seized on the newly opened markets of California. With the economy growing at a record pace and population spikes combining for an increased demand in electricity, bidders aggressively gobbled up utility assets. As the utilities sold off their power plants at the end of the 1990s, they were all purchased by a handful of small energy producers that were already major players in the industry, including industry giants like Duke Energy and Southern Company.