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Claim: Municipal utilities in California, including those in such cities as Anaheim, Los Angeles, Pasadena and Sacramento, escaped most of the rate increases and service outages that hit customers of the state's private utilities in 2000 and 2001.
Response: The fact is that in California's energy crisis, the utilities that owned generating plants did relatively well, while those that had to buy power on the open market saw severe price volatility - and at times couldn't buy all the power they needed at any price, hence the blackouts. As part of California's flawed deregulation plan, the private utilities there were required to sell off their generation assets. When the crisis hit later, they, along with government utilities that owned no generating plants, were at the mercy of the marketplace. In Iowa today, it is very unlikely that a new government utility will own generating facilities. It's more likely they will have to purchase power on the open market. |
