Some California wholesale electricity prices tripled and others nearly quadrupled during one weekend in December. California was one of the first states to deregulate its electricity market. Things are a mess out there with high electricity rates and not enough power to go around. Legislators are talking about a special legislative session, and regulators of all kinds are meeting to try to figure out what's gone wrong with a plan that was supposed to bring big savings to consumers. It's not just a case of bickering among politicians.
Citizens are furious.
Businesses are going out of business. Politicians are blaming regulators who are blaming the utilities who are blaming the politicians. There's plenty of finger-pointing and talking but not much action. The movement to re-regulate California's electricity industry gained a major supporter in late November as the U.S. Department of Energy asked federal regulators to return to electricity prices for the entire West that are based on the cost of production rather than set by the market. The state's utility regulators called for price controls.