We take such pleasure in watching a disaster from a safe distance! Only in the last century has humankind had the ability to manufacture truly impressive disasters to order, and until recently these were in the form of wars and riots. Now the nation watches in horrified glee as California, the self-described Golden State, stumbles around in the dark of a self-inflicted energy disaster.

    How far will this disaster reach? Man-made disasters are profitable business, and there is abundant, if unclear, evidence that boomtime profits are being made while electrical service is interrupted in parts of California. Just beyond human memory, similar profits accompanied the selling of electrical dependence in the 1920s, resulting in utility regulation. These laws against profiteering are being dismantled across the United States, but now Californians lead the nation in asking if deregulation is in the best interests of justice and electricity for all.

    What does this crisis show us about our newly essential man-made resource electricity? It is as important to our lives now as air and water. Unlike most commodities like steel and grain, it cannot be stored effectively. Should electricity be traded in a market that favors profit for a few at the expense of the many? Or will unregulated utilities inevitably behave badly? Should we also give away unregulated ownership of sun, wind, and rain to privately owned for-profit corporations?

    Finally, how can we all learn from California's crisis, and rebuild more lastingly on the rubble?