Wendy Sherman: “Well, yes. What has happened is that because we do not regulate these wholesale costs, they have an incentive to…”

“Well, yes. What has happened is that because we do not regulate these wholesale costs, they have an incentive to withhold supply and drive the price up. Instead of making a megawatt for $30 and selling it for the regulated price of $50, they produce fewer megawatts, drive the price up to $500, and make a killing. What they will do when they shut down a turbine is say the turbine is closed for maintenance. The chart in front of you there illustrates how many megawatts were not produced on the average day in April, a couple months ago, because turbines were closed for maintenance. As you can see, over 15,000 megawatts were not produced on the average day. That is the yellow line. You might say, is that not typical? No. You look at the prior April; and you see that blue line, roughly 3,000. You say was April just an anomaly? You compare the yellow and the blue lines, and the pattern is clear, 8,000 to 12,000 to 13,000 megawatts not produced on the average day to drive up the price, not because the plants needed to be closed for maintenance, but in addition to the regular maintenance that was done just 12 months ago. I might point out, that is about one-fifth of the power we need in California. Closed for maintenance means closed to maintain an outrageous price for every kilowatt.”