United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2001-06-29 monographic deposited born digital 6 p. GA 1.13:GAO-01-870R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R P0b002ee180399866 f:d01870r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R GAO-01-870R Electric energy Utility rates Energy shortages Energy supplies California Correspondence A01317 The electricity industry is restructuring throughout the United States and in other countries. However, some restructuring efforts have exhibited problems during this transition. California and the west have witnessed extraordinarily high wholesale prices and sharp limitations on the availability of electricity. In California, high prices have led to financial problems for the state's utilities, power outages, and rate increases. In other Western states, the high prices have also led to impacts including rate increases for consumers. This report assesses the outlook for California's electricity supplies this summer. GAO found that, due to a lack of timely direct access to key information and limitation in other data, it is not able to provide an assessment of the likely condition in California. In order to make an independent, reliable assessment, GAO would need access to data underlying key supply and demand factors, such as power plant outages and electricity supplies that could be imported into California. Furthermore, GAO found that forecasts of California's electricity market show stark differences in the expected conditions this summer. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R.pdf GAO-01-870R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-01-870R Correspondence GAO-01-870R; California Electricity Market: Outlook for Summer 2001; Electric energy Utility rates Energy shortages Energy supplies California