AN ELECTRIC MOMENT IN CALIFORNIA.

The article focuses on electricity rates in California. On May 6, 1997, electricity regulators in California voted to allow customers to go shopping for lower electric rates as of January 1, 1997, accelerating the original timetable by four years. Anticipation of that decision has set off a modern gold rush in the state, which has an annual power bill of 20 billion dollars. Companies as far away as Georgia and Kentucky are launching marketing programs and lining up customers eager to cut their bills. INSET: POWER GRAB.