California’s Energy Crisis Isn’t Over Yet

Little has changed since the rolling blackouts of 2001. But a law passed in 2002 could save us all from summer reruns.

The great California energy debacle ended ninety years of tradition at Pacific Gas and Electric. PG&E had built and operated power plants to feed a growing population since 1905, but once the state “deregulated” its electricity market, the utility sold off its generating capacity except for those hydropower and nuclear facilities that government officials didn’t want to go unregulated. From then on, PG&E officials decided, they would make money not by producing electricity, but by distributing it along their nest of wires. Ten years, one bankruptcy, and $8 billion in debt later (debt you help retire every month), those officials have changed their minds.