[Leon Harris, Cnn Anchor:] The energy crisis is the focus of our "Ask CNN" this morning.
[David Walsh:] Hi. My name is David Walsh from Santa Anna, California. And my question for CNN is: How do energy crises occur? And why do all the other states have power, while California is in a state of emergency?
[Greg Lamotte, Cnn Correspondent:] The basic reason the energy crisis has occurred is the fact that the economy of California over the past five years has grown dramatically. As part of that economic growth, it has become extraordinarily thirsty for more electricity in the state. Well, California is the first state in the nation to go into deregulation of its utilities. It passed deregulation in 1996. Part of the deregulation called for the utilities to have a cap on the price that they could charge to consumers, that was a consumer protection that was put into the legislation. They were supposed to have that cap in place until the year 2002. What's happen in the interim is energy prices have risen dramatically over the past year or so. The utilities are saying they are having to eat the cost because they can't pass those costs on to consumers. PG&E; and Southern California Edison, the state's two biggest utilities, say they are about $10 billion in debt. That is affecting their credit rating, and it is making it more difficult for them to buy energy from power generators. And, in fact, many of the out-of-state power generators are reluctant to sell energy these days to California utilities because they're afraid they are not going to get paid.