Editorial: Hold on to your hats during this wild ride

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Californians already had been hit with skyrocketing power bills from their state's poorly-conceived plan to deregulate the electric industry. But Wednesday they received another jolt from the deregulation-propelled energy crisis -- a lack of electricity prompted rolling blackouts, cutting off power to hundreds of thousands.

Meanwhile in Nevada, state consumer advocate Tim Hay said he wants a temporary moratorium on a requirement that electric companies here sell their coal-fired generating plants. Otherwise, Hay notes, our electricity needs could be at the mercy of out-of-state companies if they purchase the plants. Critics of deregulation note that a contributing factor to California's plight has been out-of-state energy companies that have gouged consumers.

Despite Hay's concerns, it's unclear if regulators would suddenly stop the sale of the power plants, which was a condition of the merger between Sierra Pacific and Nevada Power. But one thing is becoming more clear: Nevada politicians will become even more hesitant to go ahead with deregulation after hearing about California's woes Wednesday -- traffic lights going out, ATMs shutting down, people trapped in elevators, etc. "Deregulation" quickly is morphing into a four-letter word for power consumers.

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