>In a supply-starved market, there's no such thing as competition.
>/jordan
I guess my main point is, yes, pricing gouging happened, and is still happening. However, IMO, it is the not the or primary sole cause. California's own deregulation plan was flawed, to put it mildly, with most of the State government asleep at the wheel, plus, the weather patterns could hardly be worse.
BTW, a great site to track the California power crisis is www.rtumble.com ,which links to articles all over the state covering California politics, with the power crisis being about the only thing happening in the State government now...
Some excellent stuff there today, ranging from the Legislature grilling El Paso Energy (no smoking gun found); Calpine battling San Jose to build a power plant (you'd think this would be a slam-dunk, but NIMBY); Letting rates deregulate completely, thus tripling prices which would force conservation thus finally lowering prices; various articles about how Gov. Davis plan to buy part of the grid from Edison is probably doomed, along with his career.