Now with the prompting of the left, blame is being shoved toward a convenient nemesis - capitalism. The opportunity to use this crisis as a wholesale license to derail the energy deregulation movement across the nation is just too irresistible. Advocates for swollen government see the failure of the California plan as their best chance to suppress any laissez-faire economic solutions. Half-truths and demagoguery are powerful weapons in their fight. For certain, the answer is not to move back toward government run monopolies or to attempt to nationalize industries.
Authentic deregulation is the proper course.
It will require the government to remove its tentacles from the marketplace and permit a liberated economy to generate new approaches and remedies. This is the kind of solution that is an anathema to government central planners, but after countless rolling blackouts and relentless public outcry, they may be persuaded to see the proverbial light.