edmo: Government used to own utilities.

An old Frontline on electricity deregulation:

The debate is as old as Adam Smith's theory of the "invisible hand" determining optimal market prices. But in the last 30 years, the debate in the U.S. has taken on a practical edge. Since the early 1970s, natural gas, telecommunications, and airlines have all been deregulated to one extent or another. All faced the same ideological arguments.

Twenty years after the 1978 deregulation of the airline industry, for example, conservative think tanks like The Heritage Foundation called for further deregulation, saying that the rules in place were still prohibitive. Meanwhile, new, short-haul airlines were calling for "re-regulation," complaining that large airlines were squeezing them unfairly out of the market.

The debate over California's electricity deregulation is similar. Proponents such as Enron CEO Jeff Skilling and Chairman Ken Lay say that California's "deregulation" has merely substituted one set of regulations for another, and that these have actually made it harder for energy companies to do business in the state. They point to the natural gas market as an example of successful deregulation.

Obviously, with the smartest guys in the Enron room and the Heritage Foundation saying, "deregulate harder" everyone should've known how it would turn out.  And look how well airline deregulation worked!

The free hand of the market, usually clenched into a fist, rarely uses lube when it goes in.  And we should all thank the power companies for that lack of lube.  Friction causes heat.  Heat is energy!