Research Paper on:
California's Electricity Deregulation

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Enterprises Inc. 10/2001 to Use This Paper Properly, INTRODUCTION Describes what led to the current crisis  and what some possible solutions might be to the deregulation of electricity in California. This paper gives a well-researched in-depth look at deregulation in California. CALIFORNIA DEREGULATION Deregulation  in business, which is the process of allowing businesses to operate without legislative controls, has historically been most prevalent in the banking, utility and airline industries. But what is  deregulation and is deregulation of business activity truly possible, and if so, what might be the consequences? Regulatory Analyst Jim Elliott, in a energy newsletter wrote that "When California Legislators  decided to institute electric industry restructuring in 1996, it was believed by many that the deregulated industry would offer consumers a way to make better choices and to have lower  rates for their electrical and utility services" (Elliott, PG, 2001). "The center of the controversy over the electric industry in California", Elliott explains, "is San Diego". He goes on  to tell us that San Diego Gas & Electric has 1.2 million customers who have seen their rates almost double from last summer. The problem began when SDG&E could  not find a power plant that would be willing to sign a contract with them for under five years; this length of time was unacceptable to SDG&E as they believed  it to be too long. "The result was that SDG&E wound up contracting with a power plant at rates that were much  higher than those of other energy distributors in California, such as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric Co., whose customers are protected from a rate increase until 2002