Nor is it deregulation. Free enterprise and true deregulation would have consisted of one statement on a piece of paper: the government shall stay out of the energy business. End of document.

Instead we had government collusion, sweetheart deals with eager power companies, under-the-table government contracts with favored out-of-state suppliers, and the truly psychotic concept of deregulating wholesale prices while freezing consumer prices. A huge load of mixed market crap with a thin coat of "deregulation" painted on it to fool the yokels. We're still paying through the nose for our governor's deals last year.

If this is a free market in energy, then I'm Nikola Tesla.

And California is still full of jackasses who are trying to blame the mess on capitalism. Their solution is to have the government take over the whole mess, and have it run by the citizens, i.e. the jackasses. Then instead of those nasty engineers and technical types running things, Butterfly McMoonbeam can sit in the big chair and push the shiny buttons and come up with swell ideas like pouring honey into the engines so the exhaust won't smell so bad.