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Davis inherited a fucked-up deregulation plan -- it wasn't his doing. Don't get me wrong, he didn't make the situation any better, but between the original design of the plan and subsequent anticompetitive behavior in the market, he was left playing a pretty shitty hand.
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Some he inheritted, but some were his own doing. The legislature bears the blame for the dimwitted "partial deregulation" plan and for California's rediculous environmental laws that effectively make natural gas plants the only thing that could be built in the state. He (and possibly his predecessor) bear the blame for not putting pressure on the state PUC to allow another natural gas pipeline to be built (part of the reason for the price spike is there was only conduit, which exascerbated the shortage). Davis bears the blame for not allowing costs to be passed onto consumers (which would have solved the demand problem) and for bringing in these Water and Sewer enigineers to enter into long-term contracts at high prices that were caused by what everyone acknowledged were short term phenomenom (hot summer, water shortage, natural gas shortage etc. combing for the perfect storm). State PUC hacks know about rate of return and recovering costs of capital, but they and their sliderulers were SERIOUSLY outmatched by energy traders with MBAs and financial calculators. WHy not pony up some money and hire JP Morgan or some IPE/NYMEX traders to be your designated hitter? You can't solve the problem if you refuse to acknowledge that you are way out your league.
