Once you actually know the details of California's energy problems, you start to get really irritated everytime someone refers to it as "deregulation". The first obvious clue that no deregulation has taken place is the price cap set in place for almost all California power utilities. Here's a hint: a price cap is a regulation.

Of course, the more subtle indication that it was not what it seemed was the fact that it came from California to begin with. Free markets are a traditionally right-of-center concept. California, of course, is anything but. So when their state proposes "deregulation", letting private power companies compete for business, red flags should go off in any thinking person's head. Reading the details of what can only be described as "reregulation" confirms the doubts. The heart of the problem is that California politicians have no grounding in this thing we call reality. California has no one to blame but itself.