CarolC: California's problems were created by California politicians. There is no one else that can be blamed, althogh the Governor is trying desperately to lay the blame at the feet of President Bush, who has been in office less than six months.

Deregulation certainly has had something to do with it, but I think that the major problem has to do with the moratorium on the construction of power plants. The population of California grew tremendously during the past ten years creating a demand for more power , but some folks over there didn't want to build more power plants becaue of environmental concerns, so now there is a problem. I don't think there are any short-term solutions.

Governor Davis is begging the Feds for price caps on the power suppliers, but price controls have never worked, and Bush isn't being sucked in.

DougR