Unfortunately, it was a promise that could not be kept. Having, in their opinion, exhausted all available administrative means to lower electricity prices, politicians reasoned that their only recourse was the Consumers in California are still plagued with rolling blackouts. The experts had told them that competitive markets always lower prices. Competition induces efficiency. Efficiency induces lower costs.
Lower costs induce lower price.
Of course, the fly in this ointment is that the retail electricity market might not be competitive. The experts told the political leaders not to worry, however. Even if the retail market is not yet fully competitive, the wholesale electricity market surely is, they said. Therefore, to fulfill their promise of lower prices, all politicians had to do was unleash the competitive power of the market. They simply had to deregulate it.