— During last year’s west coast electricity crisis, several generators and power-traders drove prices up by gaming the market. It turns out they were joined by friends in government doing the same thing, according to Daniel Weintraub:
One problem: The evidence doesn’t implicate Enron so much as the managers of California’s electricity grid, whose Folsom-based trader was caught red-handed trying to game the market. In a bizarre twist, it turns out that the state-created Independent System Operator, or ISO, was the one rigging the price of power, not the evil private generators who everyone suspected.
Libertarians are going to love this.