Four Big Mistakes in Deregulating the Electricity Industry

When policymakers both here and abroad deregulated and restructured the electricity industry they made four big mistakes. And we are still living with them.    Number 1: The architects of deregulation, being economists, focused on market structure and operating savings when the big problem facing the industry was increasing capital expenditures and adjusting to climate change. They diverted attention from an existential challenge to achieve modest operating savings that rarely flowed through to consumers. They created markets that…