Turning his attention to energy suppliers in the Pacific Northwest, California’s attorney general Thursday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to order more than $1 billion in refunds to California for past wholesale power purchases from five suppliers from the northwest region, including two public sector providers. The petition cites documents subpoenaed from Enron’s Portland trading unit that accuse other suppliers in the region of using market manipulation tactics similar to those it used.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s filing asked FERC to re-open its refund hearings with the added evidence that he contends shows “attempts by power companies to manipulate electricity prices in the West.” The companies implicated in the new evidence include Powerex (the marketing arm of provincial utility BC Hydro), Bonneville Power Administration, Williams, Portland General Electric and Coral Energy.

“These new Enron documents, taken together with the Enron memos released by (FERC) May 6, further indicate that Enron (and perhaps numerous other suppliers) engaged in attempts to manipulate the electricity markets in the western United States, including the Pacific Northwest and in California, beginning at least in June 2000,” Lockyer said.

“The commission should reopen the evidentiary record in this case in order to provide the opportunity of parties to explore these issues and demonstrate that manipulation occurred, that it occurred at a date far earlier than Dec. 25, 2000, and that it occurred not only in California, but in the Pacific Northwest as well.”

Earlier California and the City of Tacoma, south of Seattle, had asked FERC to grant refunds for spot market power sales in the Pacific Northwest from Dec. 25, 2000 through June 20 last year. California seeks refunds of some $1.5 billion in overcharges.

Lockyer said that after asking for what he called “quick submissions of evidence,” FERC received proposed findings from an administrative law judge who concluded that the market was “competitive and functional.” The ALJ saw “no evidence of the exercise of market power,” and FERC has not acted on the findings since receiving them late last October.

Meanwhile, even though he agrees the trading strategies identified in the high-profile Enron memos represent manipulation and should be considered illegal, FERC Chairman Pat Wood told a Senate panel that this alone will not be enough to assure refunds or relief from high-price energy contracts for ratepayers in the Pacific Northwest.

The “timing” of when Enron traders engaged in these deceptive practices, when the practices ended and when the Northwest power contracts were entered into will be a “pretty critical fact” in deciding this issue, he said at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Wednesday exploring price-manipulation practices in western energy markets.

For those contracts signed after 2000, for example, “I would probably say that [there’s] not a direct link” between the high-priced electricity contracts in the Northwest and the questionable strategies described in the Enron memos, Wood said to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). He noted his response was based on the claims of Enron attorneys, who wrote the memos, that the company’s deceptive practices were halted in late 2000.

“You are the only policeman on this street, and there is a mugging happening in my state,” said Cantwell, adding that “you have to respond” to customers in the Pacific Northwest.

Under questioning from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Wood indicated the Commission may seek enforcement action against energy suppliers who are found to have gamed the market. “That’s what I expect could potentially [occur]” once FERC determines “did it happen, how much, how often, who was involved, what days [and] what utilities.”

At this stage, “that process is not complete, and so enforcement proceedings have not begun as to specific counts,” he said. Nor has the Commission referred to the Department of Justice yet any evidence to suggest that the trading practices violated criminal law, according to Wood. He noted that FERC is cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in its investigation.

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