Hatch wielded the antitrust and regulatory powers of the office to promote market competition and regulate markets that were dominated by monopolies. In August 2000, he was an early opponent of the movement to deregulate electricity, issuing a several-hundred-page report claiming it would lead to higher prices for consumers. The year after Hatch issued this report, California experienced widespread power blackouts and 800 percent rate hikes after it deregulated electricity markets. In 2005, Allina Health System dropped its efforts to buy two cardiology practices after Hatch filed a lawsuit claiming that its proposal would give it a monopoly in local cardiac care.