Let’s recall that many states have granted monopolies to utilities companies, especially power generating companies. They are GUARANTEED a profit, in order to guarantee their economic viability and survival. This is offset by the fact that most are publicly traded, so ANYONE can choose to purchase shares of the stock, and enjoy the benefits of the company profitability.

There are at the same time, privately owned companies generating and providing power, operating in the same market economy as those state-protected monopolies. Humans being what they are, friendships frequently bridge the gulf between these groups, and from time to time friends manage to set up devious, unwholsome and secret collusions artificially to drive up energy prices, creating some spectacular profits for a few, by screwing many hundreds of thousands. Go back and look at the so-called “energy crisis” that was the defining event of the grotesquely corrupt administration of the California gubernator immediately preceding the Honorable Mr. Schwartzenneger.

I recall seeing a front page article “under the fold” about early spring of 1999 which warned that rolling brown-outs were expected to become frequent by that summer. Oddly, that was the last mention of the problem until the crisis suddenly exploded. Turned out later that it was a purposely manufactured crisis, arranged by criminal conspiracy among several power generating companies.

It was an open secret, discussed frankly even in the newspapers that supported the Gray administration, that interviews with and access to the governor’s office required a hefty contribution to the governor’s campaign fund as a starting point.

Hard to imagine sensible energy policies emerging from that setup.