The California Electricity Crisis: Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

This short piece introduces the papers in the special issue on the California Energy Crisis of 2000/2001. The papers illustrate aspects of the crisis, such as the role of the gas market, future trends for investment, and the crisis’ impact on consumers. Three papers analyze policy-makers’ responses to the crisis, with case studies of over-lapping regulation, the trade-off between prices, reliability and the environment, and policies that helped achieve demand reductions in the summer of 2001. Two papers consider lessons for other countries, in Latin America and Europe.