In the USA, the history of assuming that the national government will support power to the people the way FDR, PWA, BPA, TVA, ... did has given the national government quite a bit of leverage to keep the states in line. I'm figuring that this auction will be used by the executive branch to buy power at a high price in the auction, then allocate it to areas in need according to a plan approved by the powers that be. If they do a good job, nothing to see here. YMMV.

> Did nobody do economics 101?

They did but didn't like it. Simulating activity buys them time, after the blackouts, it will be like "See Econ 101, capping the price doesn't work, let's uncap it quick."

Round and round we go.