what economics 101 will actually teach you is that, once the market settles, the owner of the natural gas company and the owner of the electricity company will then get together and collude with each other to keep the prices high.

it is not in their rational self-interest to compete. rather, it is in their rational self-interest to cartelize, and then set prices in co-ordination with each other.

so, if the electricity company wants to increase rates, it will call the gas company, which will also increase it's rates.

economics 101, guys.

and, you can try to get the government to stop them from doing that with regulatory bodies, but those bodies just end up in the cartel, in the end.

the only real solution is public ownership....