40 percent of Texans Plan to Try Electricity Competition: When the gates to deregulation open on January 1, 2002, the race to choose a new energy supplier will begin in the Texas market. According to a recent Scripps Howard Texas poll, there will be plenty of consumers ready to make the switch. The poll predicts that 40 percent of Texans are likely to switch their electric providers when the state markets open to competition. Results also showed that a majority of Texans agree that there should be more competition in the states electric power industry.

Texas Deregulation Gets More Kudos: Texas' deregulation plan is receiving praise yet again as a successful approach to deregulation. The Retail Energy Deregulation Index (RED Index), a scorecard developed by the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets (CAEM), lists Texas' deregulation plan as second only to Pennsylvania's deregulation approach. According to Ken Malloy, CEO of CAEM, Texas is primed for a successful transition to a competitive electric retail market. CAEM, an independent, non-profit, Washington, DC based, think-tank specializing in energy competition policies produces the Retail Energy Deregulation Index (RED Index). 

Electric Choice Stalled in California: California's ongoing struggle to get above their problems with deregulation has finally came to a head. On September 20, the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) suspended direct access until the Department of Water Resources no longer supplies power to the customers in California. The PUC's decision to take away direct access was deemed necessary to help the state pay for the upcoming 12.5 billion bond issue planned for later this year and to help pay off the states outstanding debt for energy purchased by the Department of Water Resources. 

Although consumers can no longer change electricity providers, companies who already hold energy agreements will continue to receive service through the end of their contracts. EES is continuing to move forward in the California market with sales of natural gas procurement and delivery and many other services that are still needed in the region. With California consumers temporarily unable to seek the best price for power, services such as business risk management, distributed generation, and energy efficiency improvement services will become customers only outlet for achieving energy savings.

Daniel Weintraub: Now it's illegal to purchase your own electricity
> > 
> > (Published Sept. 25, 2001) 
> > 
> > Buying your own has been banned in California. Electricity on the open
> > market is now officially contraband. Like prescription drugs, which you
> > can get only from a licensed pharmacy, electricity is something you can
> > buy from your local utility, which can make its own or buy it from the
> > state. Beyond that, it's an illegal substance. 
> > It was the grand hope of a deregulated electricity industry that you and
> I
> > and the factory down the street would be able to buy our own juice from
> > the lowest bidder. It might have been a pain -- kind of like shopping
> for
> > telephone service. But just as breaking up Ma Bell spawned great leaps
> in
> > mobile phone technology, busting the utility monopoly was supposed to
> > usher in a new era for electricity. 
> > Not that there were mobs of shopkeepers and apartment dwellers lobbying
> > the Legislature for consumer choice. It was the biggest users who really
> > wanted to cut their own deals. Under the old, regulated system, the huge
> > factories that make steel and cement and computers, and gobble up
> > electricity by the megawatt, were paying 50 percent more than their
> > competitors in other states. They wanted the right to shop around. 
> > The Legislature agreed, but only to a point. Lawmakers permitted choice,
> > but they rigged the new system in its early years to favor the utilities
> > that were a powerful force in the Capitol. They made it nearly
> impossible
> > for the private generators to undercut the utilities' pricing, and they
> > put roadblocks in the way of cities that might have gathered their small
> > customers together and used their market clout to negotiate for lower
> > rates. 
> > The government spent millions on an advertising campaign trying to
> > persuade us of the wisdom of buying our own energy. But there weren't
> > really many deals to be had. Now there are none. 
> > Consumer choice died a quiet death last week at the hands of the Public
> > Utility Commission. Its demise was collateral damage from the mess that
> > was California's experiment in electricity deregulation. 
> > Choice couldn't survive because the state, which now controls the energy
> > business, can't cope with the competition. If Californians were allowed
> to
> > buy their own electricity, pretty soon most of us would figure out that
> we
> > are getting a rotten deal from the state. As more people left the state
> > system, the few that remained would have to pay higher and higher rates
> to
> > keep the books balanced. Eventually, the whole thing would collapse of
> its
> > own weight. 
> > We're in this fix because Gov. Gray Davis, when he stepped in to buy
> > electricity on behalf of the failing utilities in January, went too far.
> > Craving stability at any price, Davis bought almost all the energy the
> > state will need for the next few years and much of what we'll need for a
> > decade. And he bought that electricity at the top of the market, paying
> > prices that had never been so high, and might never be again. 
> > As those prices were passed along to consumers, suddenly choosing your
> own
> > electricity supplier got more attractive than ever. Thousands of
> > businesses jumped at the opportunity. Among them were the big steel
> > factories in the Inland Empire region east of Los Angeles. 
> > Tamco Steel of Rancho Cucamonga, which makes rebar, realized its annual
> > electricity bill was going to climb from $12 million to $26 million if
> it
> > stayed with the local utility, Southern California Edison, according to
> a
> > report in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. The company, which just laid
> off
> > 70 people, one-fourth of its workers, desperately started searching for
> > cheaper energy. It signed a deal with a private supplier on Sept. 1,
> just
> > days before the state slammed the door shut on such opportunities. 
> > That's a scenario that was repeated up and down the state all summer,
> and
> > it illustrates why, in the twisted world of electricity regulation, the
> > Public Utilities Commission had to step in and just say no. Without the
> > ban there would have been a "jailbreak," in the words of one
> commissioner,
> > leaving small customers or the taxpayers holding the bag. 
> > That decision might have been unavoidable, given the circumstances. But
> it
> > didn't have to be this way. Davis could have swallowed hard and ridden
> out
> > the storm earlier this year. He could have signed electricity contracts
> > for shorter terms at higher prices. That would have been painful,
> > financially and politically, but once the crisis passed, Californians
> > would have been free again to set their own course. Instead, we are
> > imprisoned in a high-priced, state-run system, and will be for years to
> > come. 
> > California, in fact, is worse off than it was in 1995, when companies
> > stuck with high utility rates first asked for the freedom to buy their
> own
> > electricity. This does not seem like an unreasonable request, an act
> that
> > should be against the law. Yet now it is. The real crime, though, is the
> > state bungling that destroyed the electricity industry.