This situation wouldn't have happened in the first place if California
didn't have economically insane regulations.  They created a regulatory
climate that facilitated this.  So yes, it is the product of
over-regulation.
-James Rogers
 jamesr@best.com
On Tue, 2002-09-24 at 05:17, Geege Schuman wrote:
> from slate's "today's papers":  
> The New York Times and Los Angeles Times both lead with word that
> a federal judge ruled yesterday that the nation's largest
> national gas pipeline company, El Paso, illegally withheld gas
> from the market during California's energy squeeze in 2000-01.
> The judge concluded that El Paso left 21 percent of its capacity
> in the state off-line, thus driving up the price of gas and
> helping to induce rolling blackouts. 
> 
> and this is the product of overregulation?