market for their electricity. Economist Lawrence Makovich contended, "We've already seen in California that price caps on retail rates increased demand and made the shortage worse and price caps also forced the largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, into bankruptcy in four months." While some charged that electricity providers had in past years charged above-market rates, in 2002 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that before the blackouts, many energy providers left the state because they could make a greater profit in other Western states. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission stepped in and set price caps for each megawatt of power bought after lifting the caps to avoid rolling blackouts six months previously. The state of Hawaii briefly introduced a cap on the wholesale price of gasoline (the Gas Cap Law) in an effort to fight "price gouging" in that state in 2005. Because it was widely seen as too soft and ineffective, it was repealed shortly thereafter. Venezuela According to Girish Gupta from The Guardian, price controls have created a scarcity of basic goods and made black markets flourish under President Maduro. India In India, the government first enacted price control in 2013 for the Drug Price Control order. This order gave local regulatory body, and the Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority the power to set ceiling prices on the National List of Essential medicines. Sri Lanka In 2021 the Sri Lankan government enacted price controls on several essential items resulting in shortages. Price floor A price floor is a government- or group-imposed price control or limit on how low a price can be charged for a product, good, commodity, or service. A price floor must be higher than the equilibrium price in order to be effective. The equilibrium price, commonly called the "market price", is the price where economic forces such as supply and demand are balanced and in the absence of external influences the (equilibrium) values of economic variables will not change, often described as the point at which quantity demanded and quantity supplied are equal (in a perfectly competitive market). Governments use price floors to keep certain prices from going too low. Two common price floors are minimum wage laws and supply management in Canadian agriculture. Other price floors include regulated US airfares prior to 1978 and minimum price per-drink laws for alcohol. Advantages of a price floor are: Motivates producers to produce more. Prevents the fluctuation of