In some cases the market does better. Utilities are, by nature, capital intensive and >should< be operated as a monopoly.

One of the other problems in CA was that they deregulated on certain sectors...and basically denied the suppliers the ability to pass on most of the cost increases...which meant that the public had no incentive to stop using until it actually >was< a crisis.

The CA deregulation is a shining example of how NOT to do things.