Budgeting Our Utility Debt
Before entering this class I thought I had some knowledge about California?s Electric Industry. I thought electricity came from the decades-old monopolies, such as: Southern California Edison, SDG&E, PG&E. I thought these powerhouse companies were the prime roots for California?s energy crisis. I figured since they were monopolies, they allowed California to go through an energy crisis because the state was not offering them enough money to turn on the electricity again.
Upon entering this class I thought I had the answers. Then you brought up California?s Electric Utility Industry and Assembly Bill 1890. Quickly, I found out how wrong I was about my electricity theory. The Assembly Bill 1890 was unanimously enacted in late August 1996, which forced California to deregulate. AB 1890 not only allowed competition, but also in many respects, mandated the competition by forcing the big three IOU?s to sell their fossil fuel powered generation facilities to non-regulated private companies. This was the majority of California?s generation facilities. AB 1890 was an attempt to impose “perfect competition” for power generators. Because there cant be any “vertical integration,” the power utilities couldnt be allowed to
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