If anybody still thinks electrical deregulation is a good idea, last week’s review of prices paid by consumers in regulated and deregulated states should slam the lid on the coffin.

The Associated Press analysis of U.S. Department of Energy data revealed that consumers in the 16 states (and the District of Columbia) that deregulated paid an average of 30 percent more for power in 2006 than those in regulated states.

In Montana there were other unintended consequences as well, such as Montana Power’s starry-eyed suicide on the information highway. But the main problem was that deregulation was premised on the promise that unfettered capitalism would provide the competition necessary to keep prices low.

When the competition never really happened, especially for residential and small business customers, consumers ended up paying steep market prices and longing for the good old days of fully regulated utilities.

Last week the Legislature passed a “re-regulation” bill, although many lawmakers remained skeptical and Gov. Brian Schweitzer has yet to decide whether to sign it. The bill would let NorthWestern Energy build new power plants, which the company says will provide Montana customers with electricity for stable, regulated rates. Detractors wonder whether the state’s consumers, by paying for the plants through their power bills, might not end up paying even more.

We’ve probably seen the last of the cheap power that many of us grew up to expect, and energy executives have all sorts of reasons why prices are rising now, including plant building and the cost of natural gas often used to fuel them. But that big fat rate discrepancy between deregulated and still-regulated states remains strong evidence that some kind of re-regulation is the way to go.