In the 1970s, legislation was passed to transfer to northwestern consumers a large part of the benefits of power purchased by public power companies at a price below the market-clearing level. The legacy of that policy contributes today to the excessive consumption of a commodity now in scarce supply. A stark contrast is provided by the coal industry, which somewhat miraculously was spared price controls in the 1970s. Coal supplies as a consequence expanded and to this day remain readily available. No one starved from paying higher coal-fired electricity prices in the 1970s and everyone has since benefited from falling coal prices.
Price controls have an unbroken record of aggravating crises.
No counterexamples of success exist. That they increase that economic pain is a lesson that must be learned every generation or so. On the bombing campaign. By Rich Lowry. By Andrew Stuttaford.