After decades of promoting a free-market approach to the electricity and natural gas industries, European governments are taking back control of these vital functions. Record-high energy prices, partly the result of Russia’s throttling of gas supplies, are prompting lawmakers to discard economic orthodoxy and undo years of painstaking deregulation.Britain, perhaps the most market-oriented of the large European countries, is taking one of the biggest steps in this direction. Prime Minister Liz Truss, on her third day in office, on Thursday announced a plan to, in effect, freeze energy bills for two years for consumers and six months for business. The intervention, with an estimated cost to the government of as much as 150 billion pounds ($172 billion) …
