Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he wants California to have a 15 percent energy reserve.
Posted on 04/26/2004 8:32:30 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The California Public Utilities Commission was holding a hearing last week on the future of the state's still-shaky electricity market, when one participant made an uncomfortable observation.
It was 10 years ago to the day that the commission had published its now-infamous "Blue Book," a plan that set the course for California's disastrous detour into deregulation.
"Why are we here again?" asked Mike Florio, senior staff attorney with The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco. "Are we that much smarter than the ones who launched the debacle?"
In 2000 and 2001, a haywire energy market and stratospheric prices sent the state's investor-owned utilities to the financial brink and led to rolling power blackouts. The state was forced to step in, buying electricity for the beleaguered utilities and negotiating expensive long-term contracts to avoid exposure to the volatile spot market. Three years later, all the old interests are back at the table, asking the same kinds of questions ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he wants California to have a 15 percent energy reserve.
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