Econ Ed Link: Deregulation and the California Utilities

"The verdict is in: California's experiment with energy deregulation is not just a mess; it's a certifiable failure, according to everyone from the state governor to the very utilities that initially backed the scheme." This is how Charles Feildman, CNN Correspondent, began his article on January 4, 2001, entitled "The California Power Quagmire". Has this happened with any other industry? How and why did this happen in California and can it happen in other states? To understand what happened one must look at some simple and basic concepts in economics.