After all, they got their CTCs, and might even be in line for a DRC, or drack. Some take a dim view of all the new lingo. They cloak them in this Wall Street and economics gobbledygook that is designed to mystify the rest of us. It usually means they're going to pick your pocket. But others take a more forgiving view.
People expect language in conversation to be a little flabby.
We use all kinds of words that don't need to be there. A search of an online database of publications shows it appearing in quotes as far back as the early 1990s, often by utility officials. But it didn't pick up steam until the late '90s. Strangely, it figured in another crisis. But the phrase seems to have gained a toehold in popular speech during the energy crisis.