No one is dressed in all-black. Instead, both held on to their publicly owned generating plants and continued to provide power at cost. Rates in the city of Los Angeles are about a quarter of the California market price. While San Francisco and neighbouring cities in Los Angeles County, such as Beverly Hills, have suffered blackouts, L.A. proper has endured none. So, too, in Medicine Hat.
Large industries pay about a fifth of what their counterparts are charged elsewhere in Alberta.
Medicine Hat Mayor Ted Grimm explains why his city declined to take part in Alberta's free-market experiment. We're not just ideological. Now, like Los Angeles, Medicine Hat is sitting pretty. Jeff Jodoin, a regulatory analyst with the Alberta Consumers Coalition, has a theory to explain Medicine Hat and Los Angeles. In a curious way, his analysis explains not only Medicine Hat and Los Angeles but deregulation's success stories - Pennsylvania and Britain.