One of my colleagues did a quick study of the pattern of taking
plants off line. It was easy to see what was happening.
Look, you have a very inelastic demand. Allowing blackouts would
change that a bit. Any time you draw the supply down near the
baseline demand, the price will soar.
If you had some excess demand, lots of sellers, and a similar
sort of market in natural gas, along with some response of demand
to price, deregulation might have made some sense -- but the
state religion demands deregulation at all costs.
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Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321
E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
