In retrospect, deregulating the power companies seems to be a huge mistake. I've seen but one place where I've lived -- Houston -- where you could actually choose your power provider based on a rate.

In nearly every other instance, it seems that it's transitioned from a public utility to part of a corporate balance sheet and focused on maximizing shareholder value.

Had SCE not been on the New York Stock Exchange and been a public utility, they certainly wouldn't have a $900 million net income. And they wouldn't be squeezing nickels out of critical labor to boost those numbers some more.