Too hot a market: How energy producers manipulate California    (Published Sept. 22, 2000)  The priciest place to shop this August in California was in Pasadena.
There  at the California Power Exchange, where much of the state's electricity is  bought and sold, prices that utilities paid for power (an average $166 per  megawatt) were up fivefold from the previous August ($32).
What is happening?
Among other things, too much power on hot days is being purchased in the  near-panic environment that develops in the hours before a possible crisis.
Too little is being purchased as it should be -- days, or even months, in

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