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Enron Mail |
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
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