Schwarzenegger to Spark CA Electric Market Reforms

November 2003

California's retail electric market has been wrongly characterized as dead. In 2001 the legislature capped growth in competitively served load - but over 4000 MW of customer load is served today by a competitive supplier.

Governor-elect Schwarzenegger, who will take office November 17, offers a clear and broad set of electric market reforms on his campaign website. He specifically proposes looking at other markets for inspiration, "It is time to learn from other successful restructurings enacted by Texas, the New England states, and the Mid-Atlantic states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland."

Nobel Laureate Prescribes California Market Reforms

Vernon Smith, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, and his colleague Lynne Kiesling wrote a missive to Governor-elect Schwarzenegger on the Wall Street Journal editorial page on November 10th. In it, they prescibe four options for electricity market reform that harness customer choice and entrepreneurial capital.
In closing, they state, "Mr. Schwarzenegger has the opportunity to leverage a historical confluence of events - a dramatic political win, enduring resentment over the energy crisis, and a solution attractive to a range of stakeholders - to craft a dynamic energy system that puts customers first while setting the scene for investment, innovation and development."