As the state struggles to keep its lights on, it powers a nationwide laugh track, inviting snickers from Americans in 49 other states. While a billion here and a billion there might seem to most people like real money, for Davis it's a small price to pay to reclaim his political viability. Now his re-election is far from assured, and he enters the national scene not as the leader of the country's biggest and best state, but as chief spokesman for a national laughingstock. Thus Davis' need to scapegoat deregulation as the cause of California's energy woes.
Deregulation is out.
Re-regulation is in. And state government will get bigger and more powerful. Under the latest installment of Davis's energy plan, unveiled Friday, the bureaucrats who couldn't manage deregulation will be given ownership and control of all 32,000 miles of transmission lines that are counted on to deliver power throughout the state. That follows up on Davis' earlier proposal to let Sacramento dictate where in-state energy producers sell their juice and at what price. Davis has warned that producers who don't comply might find their plants seized through eminent domain.