最牛英语口语培训模式：躺在家里练口语，全程外教一对一，三个月畅谈无阻！ 洛基英语，免费体验所有在线一对一课程： /ielts/xd.html（报名网址） Passage Two Questions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage: In California the regulators, the utilities and the governor all want the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to cap spot (现货旳) market prices. The Californians claim it will rein in outrageous prices. Federal regulators have refused. The battle is on. Governor Gray Davis says, “I’m not happy with the Federal Regulatory Commission at all. They’re living in an ivory tower. If their bills were going up like the people in San Diego, they would know that this is a real problem in the real world.” As part of deregulation, price caps were removed to allow for a free market. Timing is everything; natural gas prices had already skyrocketed. Demand was high from California’s booming economy. No new power plants had been built here in ten years, and power producers had the right to hike prices along with demand. And hike them they did. Loretta Lynch of the Public Utilities Commission says, “This commission and all of California was beating down the door of federal regulators to say ‘help us impose reasonable price caps to help to keep our market stable.’” Federal regulators did ask for longer-term contracts between power producers and the utilities to stabilize prices. The federal commission, unavailable for comment on this story, released a recent statement defending its position not to re-regulate. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Dec. 15, : “The commission’s intention is to enable the markets to catch up to current supply and demand problems and not to reintroduce command and control regulation t...
