THE WINTER OF OUR METER DISCONNECT

KENNETT, Mo. -- Although only a few officials in Jefferson City seem to be paying attention to the problem, Missourians have experienced economic-tremor shock for the past two months as they received their local utility bills.

To say the cost of staying warm this winter has increased is stating the obvious. Since January, utility bills have typically increased in far greater amounts than the percentages that trigger the Hancock Amendment which mandates a tax rebate for Missouri's income taxpayers. Householders need not expect they will receive any triggered refunds from their local utilities, which have become the proverbial caught-in-between companies that have no alternative, save bankruptcy, to pass their higher basic costs onto their customers.

Much of the western half of the United States is paying a high price for the idiotic performance of state officials in California who have accomplished the impossible by doing everything wrong when it came time to inaugurate deregulation policies that would please everyone.

This colossal series of mistakes is the most recent version of the laughable California miracle, which at one time implied that everything modern, trendy and hip had its origin in the Golden State.

Pish-tosh.

It all began five years ago when the state decided to open up its energy markets to competition, another way of saying deregulation. Officials concluded that the presence of more competitors would lead to lower prices (where have we heard that before?) and the end of monopolies. At the same time, the state pursued companies from anywhere to try to sell their electricity to households and businesses.

The state's consumers worried that lifting all regulations would send prices through the roof, so officials compromised and capped the prices supplies could charge. This, of course, wasn't deregulation. Rather, it was a vain attempt to please everyone, which anyone knows is a sure-fire method of pleasing no one.

California's dereg attempts eventually generated rolling blackouts, the bankruptcy of its major power-generating utilities, the sale of major power-producing plants by the largest utilities, power shortages in nearby states that were ordered to help California meet its electricity demands and overall power-price escalation in states as far away as Missouri.

Electric and natural gas customers in Missouri have California and its asinine public service policies to blame for this winter's price tag shocks, with the irony being that California's power needs will subside sooner than Missouri's.

The saga of California is also the story of another state: Pennsylvania. This one has ended quite differently, however. Consumers in Pennsylvania have saved $2.84 billion over the past three years from an enlightened program while new power suppliers have flocked to the state, lowering prices and increasing efficiency. In fact, the Pennsylvania example has proved that deregulation can work, if done effectively, just as the textbooks say it should.

One of the major differences between the plans of the two states is that Pennsylvania protected existing utilities, permitting them to sign long-term contracts that helped them hedge against price spikes.

While Pennsylvania's utilities can buy power under long-term contracts, and can still maintain their own generation plants, the problems of California have been avoided.

Pennsylvania took another precaution not followed on the West Coast: It joined other states to form a giant regional power grid, making it easier and cheaper to buy and sell electricity. Now more companies than ever are generating power in Pennsylvania, and over the next five years they could have as much as 50 percent more capacity than today.

Most Missourians would like to send their inflated monthly power and gas bills to California, but the monumental mistakes that have occurred in Sacramento leave the state scratching for cash, canceling needed education enhancement programs and even threatening to close down other state services for lack of funding.

The energy crisis wasn't abetted when the U.S. Department of Energy decided it would "help" California's utility customers by ordering neighboring states to divert power to the trouble zones, a move that quite logically and predictably brought about power crises elsewhere. Utility customers in these states are paying prices that are twice as high as before, while California consumers are paying traditional rates because of the price capping.

The feds have also forced regional suppliers to deliver power to bankrupt utilities in California, which in turn have refused to pay for the power received, and so it's predicted the courts may eventually hold Uncle Sam financially liable. If this is the case, taxpayers in Missouri and across the country will end up footing the bill so Californians can keep their pool heaters on.

The transition from central power plants to home electricity production will take decades, and even in a world where individuals make their own electricity there will always be a need for energy. But it will also be a world in which everyone bids the one-utility grid a fond farewell.

Bumbling businessmen may have sown energy chaos in California for years to come, but if their ineptitude helps inspire us to abandon monopolistic, centralized power altogether, we may one day look back on it as a harbinger of good things to come.

In the meantime, let's hope our representatives in Jefferson City will take note of what two states have discovered over the past few years, making sure that Missouri adopts the best remedies, and not, as has sometimes happened, the worst solutions.

Missouri really can't stand another winter of consumer discontent and meter disconnect.

~Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.