> How can they be legally blocked from ever taking a loss? It is a market. They bid. I don't know enough about oil & gas to tell you what is happening there, b

> How can they be legally blocked from ever taking a loss? It is a market. They bid. I don't know enough about oil & gas to tell you what is happening there, but not every market truly operates as a free market. For example, nuclear power plants almost always have a contract with the government for a specific electricity price: if the market pays more the profits will go to the government, if the market pays less the government subsidizes production. Something similar happened with early wind power.