FRANK SESNO, CNN ANCHOR: And the issues of energy, policy and economy all sort of come together in the state of California, where soaring energy costs, tight supplies and bad weather have state officials scrambling to fend off power blackouts on the ground. Some wonder whether the problem could spread. We get more now from CNN environment correspondent Natalie Pawelski.</s>NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A season of lighting limits, threatened blackouts, and record electricity prices. Could California's power crisis happen elsewhere? The electric industry says no way.</s>BILL BRIER, EDISON ELECTRIC INSTITUTE: California is a unique situation.</s>PAWELSKI: Others say, some of the problems that led to California's power crunch could happen anywhere.</s>ED SMELOFF, PACE UNIVERSITY: When supplies become tight, then all havoc can break loose, like it's happened this year in California. And there's nothing that is so unique about California that it couldn't happen elsewhere.</s>PAWELSKI: California's economy and population are growing, but the state hasn't seen a new power plant in over a decade. It's a similar story elsewhere in the</s>U.S. BRIER: This is becoming an electrified economy; yet in some regions of the country, people are adverse to having power plants and transmission systems built.</s>PAWELSKI: Another factor in California's power crunch: deregulation.</s>SMELOFF: Deregulation in California is a failure. It's had a lot of volatility and price increases, and now some severe reliability problems.</s>PAWELSKI (on camera): The other two dozen states deregulating their electricity markets have avoided these problems so far. But there are concerns about who will make sure the lights stay on in tough times, when there is no longer a centralized utility in charge. (voice-over): One other factor contributing to California's power problems: an ill-timed northwest cold snap. Those universal variables, weather and luck, are things no state and no power company can control. Natalie Pawelski, CNN.
Power Crunch: Could California's Energy Shortage Spread?