This is a pretty good article. Anybody still have that CalPowerCrisis ping list?
CalPine is simply another victim of the California State Government's refusal to actually deregulate the industry, instead setting up an artificial market mechansim (the ISO) which was staffed with truly naive types (i.e., academics) lacking in real world experience. Then, as it became obvious that this government monstrosity was falling apart, the State government (led by Davis) refused to revisit their creation, instead attempting to shift the blame to the private industry players. It is evident that the State government has learned nothing, as shown by their rule to allow only new plants to bid on SCE and PG&E contracts --- the assumption being that free bidding by producers free to raise prices if their costs go up will not work and that instead the only way to deal with this is via Government coercion. In short, they're still prisoners of socialist error!
Make it impossible for anyone to build a power plant, and you will always be at the mercy of energy brokers, scrupulous or otherwise.
There were a couple of plants authorized and built at the height of the crisis, and its possible to permit small cogens, if you are willing to jump through all hoops they put in front of you. But its a lot easier to build them elsewhere, which always will leave you at the mercy of brokers, and high-line maintenance.
Make it impossible to build a pipeline, and you'll be at the mercy of line maintenance on the only line bringing gas into the state, too.
They are building an LNG plant in Mexico, which you could never get permitted in California. The gas will be pipelined across the border to San Diego. Don't be surprised if you see powerplants built on the Mexican side to service the California market. No one in their right mind would try to build anything in California. Its too hard.