But in the late '90s, with prosperity in full swing, demand began catching up with supply. Consumers stopped worrying about their energy bills. High-tech businesses gobbled megawatts for lunch. We're all free-market maniacs now. The markets were supposed to create efficiency, unaided.
Energy conservation needs a big push.
The Bush administration has blinders on when it cuts conservation spending and downplays the need. But a market-based question has also entered the conservation debate. Most consumers don't realize that the wholesale price of power changes at various times of day. Prices spike when demand is high, say on summer afternoons, and fall at night when most offices have closed. But most of us pay a constant price per hour, whether we use expensive hours or cheap ones.