California rate experiments: lifeline or leadweight

The author, a long-time member of the California Public Utilities Commission, relates his perception of California's rate-design experiments and their consequences. Changes in the California rate structure began in 1975 with experiments in lifeline, flat and inverted, and time-of-day rates. The result has been revenue instability to which the state responded with several expedients that amount to gimmickry. The author concludes that the net result is a rate structure that has failed and will have to be painfully dismantled. He urges other states to learn from California's experience.