It's pretty clear at this point that the California energy crisis of a few years' back was, at the very least, severely aggravated by power traders who were gouging customers of the utilities -- which is to say, just about everyone in the state. Advocates of energy deregulation say that the problem isn't with deregulation per se, but that deregulation as implemented in California was flawed and open to exploitation by the power companies. How, then do we structure power grid deregulation so as to prevent this?

The Republican draft of the energy bill released on Saturday would, for the first time, let the electric industry set mandatory rules for using its transmission grid, subject to government approval.

So, if we set the foxes to guarding the henhouse, they'll be way too busy to go for the meat. This is, of course, one of several brilliant schemes in this energy bill -- all, of course, entirely for the public benefit.