In the midst of less cheerful news this month, Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. Thursday asked the Oregon Public Utilities Commission for a 7.1% decrease in its natural gas rates for the 80,000 customers it serves in that state. It is the second gas decrease this year, reflecting the downturn overall in wholesale natural gas prices.

The Oregon regulatory commission okayed a 15.3% decrease for Avista’s gas utility, effective last April 2. The utility is asking for an Oct. 1 effective date for the most recent decrease.

Earlier this week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission named Avista as one of three companies that it will investigate more intensively to determine if its trading unit colluded with other energy traders to drive up wholesale electricity prices in the 2000-2001 period of western prices spikes. And just before that, it reported a loss for the second quarter of operations, although its utility operations were profitable.

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