On May 29th George W. Bush, on his first visit to California since his election, met Gray Davis, the governor, to discuss the electricity shortage that grips in the state. Mr Davis has been clamouring since the autumn for caps on the wholesale price of electricity. On the spot market, where California has to buy much of its power, these prices have surged to over ten times their former levels, driving the state's largest utility into bankruptcy and draining the budget.