As frontline energy workers we fix downed lines, maintain gas systems, generate power, staff call centers, perform maintenance and do everything we can to keep California’s energy supply reliable and safe. In other words, we work hard to prevent what happened in Texas from happening here. We have a front row seat on how policy measures — often dreamed up in cozy corner offices and Washington think tanks — impact people on the ground.
We also participate in regulatory and legislative proceedings, and since 1994 we have strongly opposed energy deregulation. Our first official comments to the California Public Utilities Commission on the subject predicted that deregulation would lead to price spikes, blackouts, and inadequate investments in maintenance and reliability.
Our comments were disregarded — high-paid lobbyists and proponents of a “free market” energy policy opposed us and, unfortunately, our elected leaders listened to them. California’s Public Utilities Commission decided to deregulate our energy market in 1995, and the legislature codified that decision in 1996 (in Assembly Bill 1890). Texans watched closely and emulated our model. They implemented the same deregulated market design shortly after.