Reactions to the Deregulation of Public Utilities in California

Interest rates, inflation, and oil prices soared dramatically. The 1973 Arab embrocate Embargo created an push button crisis. Recognition of the environmental consequences of electrical get-up-and-go coevals initiated a movement to "green" humankind utilities. Utilities also became touch about the existence of adequate electrical supply because of major(ip) utility shortages, most notably the 1965 Northeast blackout. In luminance of financial instability, increased consumer gather up, and the demand for environmentally conscious electricity generation, regulators became concerned about the fiscal health of the electrical patience and its ability to maintain an adequate level of service to customers.

The atomic number 20 PUC responded to the troubled period of the 1970s by attempting to decrease demand through promoting efficient capability use, redesigning the rate structure, and exploring alternatives to fossil-fueled electricity plants. death penalty of these objectives required the extensive involvement of government: "By the fetch up of this period, utilities and regulators, despite controversy and conflict . . . forged a entangled set of mechanisms and procedures to protect utility financial health and raise consumers with greater rate stabilizing" (Dasovich, Meyer, and Coe, 1993, p. 56).

The California approach to the energy crisis of the 1970s involved DSM (demand-side management) and LCP (least-cost planning). According to Cicchetti and Sepetys (1995

The energy conservation programs sponsored by public utilities as a response to the oil crisis took a variety of forms, including "free energy audits, water heater wraps, low-flow shower heads, cash rebates or low-interest pay for home weatherization, (and) cash prizes for the purchase of energy-efficient appliances" (Cicchetti and Sepetys, 1995, p. 32). However, the majority of utility companies were ill-prepared to hit the demand for meaningful conservation efforts. Instead of engaging in long-range planning, they resorted to piecemeal approaches that were unprofessionally marketed and poorly received by the consumer.

contempt their lack of economic efficiency, the early conservation efforts by public utilities, particularly the energy audits and public education programs, laid the butt to increase public awareness of energy waste. By 1980, intimately 600 public utilities across the country had initiated DSM programs (p. 33).

Parrish, Michael. (1994, 8 May). PUC pushing free-market revolution. Los Angeles Times, p. A1.

), the Arab oil colour Embargo played a pivotal role in the evolution of electric utilities from emphasizing the supply-side of utility management to the modern emphasis on conservation and long-range planning (p. 31). front to the embargo in 1973, consumers had grown accustomed to a decades-long strain of falling oil prices. Subsequently, oil consumption by the American public grew steadily, generally at a rate tally with the nation's GNP, reaching its peak in 1970. The Oil Embargo changed this scenario: "The manifold of energy prices which followed shocked the energy system and forced an mind of supply, demand and price of energy domestically. It also forced Americans to value our domestic political perspective and to assume a to a greater extent global perspective in our thinking about energy supply and consumption" (pp. 31-32). The result was a sharp filiation in energy requirements for the United States. During the peri
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