California fails to find illegal acts -- An investigation by California's
attorney general and state utility regulators into alleged illegal behavior
by electricity generators has failed to turn up evidence of criminal
behavior, persons familiar with the probe said Monday. The sources -
including two commissioners on the California Public Utilities Commission
and an aide to Attorney General Bill Lockyer - said generators aren't likely
to be prosecuted, even though it appears they did withhold supply, and that
the state may pursue civil remedies as an alternative. Jason Leopold, Dow
Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611005788.htm&symbol=EIX> -- 6/11/01
Natural gas powered generators run at capacity -- California power plants
that burn natural gas to generate electricity will be allowed to run at full
capacity over the next several months under an executive order by Governor
Gray Davis. The order, signed by Davis today, is intended to help prevent
blackouts by allowing plants fired by natural gas to exceed their
air-emission limits. Millions of Californians lost electricity during six
days of blackouts this year as demand for power outstripped supply. Daniel
Taub at bloomberg.com
<http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=AOyVitRTqQ2
FsaWYu> Jessica Berthold, Dow Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611005869.htm&symbol=PCG> -- 6/11/01
Small generators and Edison -- A judge Monday granted a request by Edison
International unit Southern California Edison to coordinate about 20 cases
filed against it by small generators who haven't been paid for power
deliveries, a company spokesman said. Los Angeles Superior Court judge
Charles McCoy ordered a stay of action on the cases, which are currently
filed in different courts throughout the state. The stay will remain in
place until McCoy can hear details on the cases and determine a course of
action. Jessica Berthold, Dow Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611005813.htm&symbol=PCG> -- 6/11/01
FERC California -- The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has
scheduled a special meeting June 18 to address pending matters involving
electricity markets in California and neighboring Western states. The
commission's meeting notice provides no details, except to list for
discussion four cases involving price mitigation in, and the structure of,
volatile power markets in California and 10 other Western states. Bryan Lee,
Dow Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611004715.htm&symbol=PCG> -- 6/11/01
El Paso gas probe broadened -- Federal energy regulators broadened their
investigation of El Paso Corp. to include charges that one company unit
showed favoritism to another in awarding a contract that, plaintiffs say,
allowed El Paso to manipulate California natural-gas prices. The company's
pipeline subsidiary, El Paso Natural Gas, last year sold 1.2 billion cubic
feet of capacity to the company's merchant energy unit, which makes money by
trading electricity and natural gas. The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission is investigating whether the trading unit then withheld gas from
the California market to drive up prices. Jim Kennett at bloomberg.com
<http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=AOyVgChYyRW
wgUGFz> -- 6/11/01
21 Democrats -- Twenty-one House Democrats, including House Minority Leader
Dick Gephardt of Missouri, want to blast federal energy regulators at their
regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday for failing to prevent the surge in
electricity prices by failing to impose price caps. The group has been
critical of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's actions to address
rising electricity costs in California's wholesale market, and
Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, has sponsored a bill that
would force the FERC to impose wholesale price caps. Amy Strahan Butler at
bloomberg.com
<http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=AOyUoQxXsRG
Vtb2Ny> -- 6/11/01
S&P on Cal energy crisis -- The most significant financial risk posed by the
California power fiasco is refinancing risk as power companies attempt to
raise funds and roll over massive amounts of short-term funding, Standard &
Poor's officials said Monday. The power industry has a need for near-term
capital "at levels not seen for decades," said William Chew, managing
director of corporate and government services at S&P. That need could put
"real pressures on financial markets," he added. Christine Richard, Dow
Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611003280.htm&symbol=PCG> -- 6/11/01
Paying over-market for power -- California paid hundreds of millions of
dollars above average market prices for electricity in the first quarter as
the state bought high-cost power to avoid blackouts, Bloomberg statistics
show. California, the largest power buyer in the U.S., said it paid an
average of $285 a megawatt hour in the first quarter. The average daily
market price was about $248 in northern California and $211 in southern
California, Bloomberg data indicate. That suggests the state paid between
$492 million and $985 million over market. The state bought 13.31 million
megawatt hours in the period. David Ward at bloomberg.com
<http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=marketsquote99_news.ht&s=AOyTJjhYNQ2
FsaWZv> -- 6/11/01
California natural gas prices -- The price of natural gas sold into Southern
California has fallen sharply the last week after both the free fall in
electricity prices and the expiration of a pipeline contract held by the El
Paso Corporation that is the subject of an inquiry by federal regulators.
The change in prices has prompted critics of El Paso to suggest that the
drop shows how much effect the company's contract had in keeping natural gas
prices high. The story is in the New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/11/business/11GAS.html> -- 6/10/01
Leiberman price caps -- Gov. Gray Davis picked up another powerful ally
yesterday in his plea for federal aid for California's crippling power
bills: Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who has named Davis to go head-to-head with
federal energy regulators at a Senate hearing on the crisis. Davis said
yesterday he was thrilled that the Connecticut Democrat would shine a light
on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which refuses to fully cap
wholesale electricity prices even though critics contend it has a legal duty
to prevent price gouging. Rick DelVecchio in the San Francisco Chronicle
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/11/MN116332.DTL>
Jason Leopold; Dow Jones Newswires
<http://quicken.excite.com/investments/news/story/djbn/?story=/news/stories/
dj/20010611/BT20010611002032.htm&symbol=PCG> -- 6/11/01
Who'll pay billions in PG&E debt? -- A judge's decision not to meddle with
electric rates has left open the biggest question in the Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. bankruptcy case: Who will pay the utility's nearly $10 billion
in bills? Ratepayers? Last week's decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis
Montali left rate-setting to the state Public Utilities Commission. But
experts aren't ruling out PUC approval of major increases in the prices
charged to PG&E's customers. Taxpayers? They'd foot the bill if the state
bailed out the utility, another reportedly live option. Claire Cooper in the
Sacramento Bee
<http://www.capitolalert.com/news/capalert01_20010611.html> -- 6/11/01
Less snow -- New scientific research suggests that global warming, even by
what experts consider conservative estimates, will severely shrink the
Sierra snowpack, which is crucial to sustaining California's economy and
population. Within a lifetime, Californians will begin to see a shift in
precipitation that will bring less snow and more rain to the mountains, say
scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. They
recently calculated the effect of an atmospheric increase of 2 to 4 degrees
Celsius in the next 60 years--a rate of global warming that many experts
consider highly likely. Nancy Vogel in the Los Angeles Times
<http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20010611/t000048641.html> -- 6/11/01
Electricity traders' tech habits get scrutiny -- State officials
investigating California's extraordinary energy prices are zeroing in on how
energy traders use the technology tools of their profession -- from e-mail
and specialized software to Internet energy data sites and online trading
floors. This technology may be key, they say, to helping traders acquire the
intimate knowledge needed to manipulate California's troubled energy market.
With minute-to-minute knowledge of market conditions, some traders went even
further, two lawsuits charge, illegally coordinating bids and sending
electricity prices to record-breaking levels. Jennifer Bjorhus in the San
Jose Mercury <http://www0.mercurycenter.com/front/docs1/tech0611.htm> --
6/11/01
Davis: Energy prices settling -- A combination of factors, including
government investigations, has helped lower the price of electricity in
recent days, Gov. Gray Davis said Sunday, but California still needs help
from the federal government. In a conference call with reporters, the
governor said the state now is spending roughly $30 million a day to buy
electricity, a significant drop from the $90 million a day California
shelled out when energy supplies ran especially short this spring. Andrew
LaMar in the Contra Costa Times
<http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/california/stories/lieber_20010611.htm
> -- 6/11/01
Energy price easing only temporary, Davis warns -- Electricity and natural
gas prices may have tumbled last week to the lowest levels in a year, but
experts say customers shouldn't get too comfortable with the idea. Gov. Gray
Davis in a conference call with reporters Sunday said the drop in spot
market prices for electricity and natural gas was a "temporary reprieve,"
which he attributed to pressure from Sacramento and Washington. "We have no
power as it relates to pricing other than advocacy, lawsuits, pressure and
shame," Davis said. The AP report is in the Los Angeles Daily
<http://www.dailynews.com/news/articles/0601/11/new12.asp> News -- 6/11/01
Bay residents tired of state crisis decrees -- Now that the California
governor has declared victory in the energy wars, many Bay Area residents
are vowing to wear their low-watt fluorescent haloes and continue conserving
power this summer. But others said there never was a war to begin with, and
one of them, a Berkeley psychotherapist, declared she would continue to
commit that California sin of all sins -- she will not unplug her hot tub.
Meredith May in the San Francisco Chronicle
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/11/MN238305.DTL> -
- 6/11/01