TL;DR Require that electricity distribution networks are owned by not for profits

The promise of the investor owned utilities in California was to release market forces and the animal spirits to drive down electricity costs. instead California has some of the highest electricity costs in the nation and produces 10% more carbon emissions per kWh of electricity than Texas. Not only is in not working to lower prices, but our grid is dirtier than that of Texas.

The issue with the electricity market in California, aside from the naked corruption of the PUC, is the amount of self dealing. PG&E power plants sell power to the PG&E distribution network which has a monopoly on delivering power to your home. There is no opportunity for market forces to interact because the left hand is selling to the right hand.

The solution is to have an actual market in wholesale electricity and end the self dealing. PG&E Sempra and SCE need to compete on price in a competitive market. In order to do that we have to sever the relationship between power plant and distribution network, so the distributor can seek the lowest price across power providers. This is why independent electricity providers like SMUD have lower prices than PG&E. Moreover since power distribution is a natural monopoly, where the cost of starting a competitor makes it impossible, they must be run as community owned not for profits.

Additionally by opening up the wholesale market new energy technologies can fill in the gap, making renewable energy more reliable through innovation and storage technology and hopefully we can end our reliance on coal power imported from Utah.

The Investor Owned Utilities are one of the few groups that gives the maximum donation to every member of the legislature, democrats republicans they don’t care. Everyone gets the maximum. This is the uphill climb before us, but our energy costs are hurting the economy and making it impossible to afford to live in California.