I'm sure that's a factor maybe but the biggest factor I've heard of is documented here and has to do with business policy rather than politics(or needing new power plants). The one I'm posting is the one I was mentioning, whereas the other issues are fairly similar.
"n 2500 MW of interruptible service contracts were signed with large commercial and industrial customers by Edison as a method of inducing large customers to stay with the Company through attractive multi-year contracts. Though many customers claim they were told they would never actually have to be interrupted, Edison asserted to the CEC, CPUC and FERC that these contracts were as good as new power generation."
I'm not positive because I'm tired but I think that's t he thing I was talking about
:
ENERGY CRISIS THING
no idea if that's a good site or not.