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Electricity Solutions for California
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In this lecture to the Commonwealth Club, Amory Lovins discusses the causes of the electricity crisis in California in the late 1990s. He dispels some rumors about the causes of the crisis. Lovins argues that the electricity crisis was caused by a singularly botched restructuring in which there was competition to generate and not save, no price signal to users, and no bid competition by efficiency. Furthermore, there was excessively concentrated market power among the electric utilities. The lectures ends with a question and answer session in which Lovins answers questions about energy efficiency and renewable energy.
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