This was the sharpest energy price increase the nation had ever seen, outdoing even the oil spikes of the 1970s. The price hikes hit hard, hammering homeowners, business, and industry, contributing to rolling blackouts in California, weighing on the stock market, and unleashing a frenzy of new drilling. Inc. Note in the paper how the utilities went to FERC to block Renewables. FERC said the utilities didn't have to buy them unless they were the cheapest. California's high energy cost has been characterized as the result of price gouging .
Outages rise in New England after deregulation .
In order to lower emissions, electricity in California over the past few years has been increasingly produced from natural gas, a fuel source that is in decline. This is not to say that there is no more natural gas to be found. It means that there has been a shift from a buyer's market to a seller's market. Increasingly, not from domestic sources. Obviously these conditions will lead to price increases for fuel.