"The energy crisis was a hoax, set up by deregulation, to suck billions of dollars out of the state," said Harvey Rosenfield and Doug Heller of FTCR, a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy group based in California. "The utilities, energy companies and power traders backed deregulation because they knew it would be a license to steal. Once freed of state scrutiny -- once the cop was off the beat -- they held the state hostage until we agreed to pay their demands. When they stole as much as they thought they could get away with, the 'crisis' mysteriously disappeared -- leaving the people of California stuck with the tab."