A San Francisco-based long distance, credit card and wireless services company is providing a platform for its customers to make known their opinions to officials at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other areas of government.

For a small fee of about $4.50, Working Assets will send two formal letters to a regulator or congressman of a customer’s choice, expressing support or opposition for a particular cause or action. For a customer who wants to express an opinion about a FERC action, the service eliminates the hassle of having to locate the docket number of a case, and find the right contact person and mailing address.

More importantly, the service is intended to give ordinary citizens a bigger, more organized voice at the Commission, on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

Since mid-December, Working Assets has sent “CitizenLetters” to FERC Chairman Pat Wood on behalf of 57 customers in California, urging the agency to uphold Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner’s unfavorable ruling involving El Paso Natural Gas, and to order the pipeline to “turn over its illegal profits to consumers.”

In September, Wagner ruled that the El Paso Corp. pipeline withheld substantial amounts of transportation capacity from the state during its energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, which ratcheted up natural gas prices for consumers (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24, 2002).

“By withholding capacity in the pipeline, El Paso created artificial shortages that raised natural gas prices in California by 600%. From its scheming, El Paso made over $900 million in additional profits, and Californians paid out $3.7 billion in overcharges,” the CitizenLetters alleged.

“Few corporations have been held accountable for illegally manipulating markets during California’s energy crisis. FERC has broad discretion to impose fines and order restitution of any profits it finds were gained improperly. FERC should affirm the judge’s decision and order the refunds for California ratepayers,” the letters continued.

“Please tell me how you intend to address this crucial issue,” they asked Wood.

In addition to providing the service, Working Assets contributes a portion of its customer charges to help fund progressive non-profit groups in a number of areas, including civil rights, economic justice, the environment and human rights. Since 1985, when the company was created, Working Assets said it has raised nearly $35 million for philanthropic and political causes.

The company purchases and resells Sprint long-distance telephone service to about 350,000 customers nationwide, as well as provides credit card and wireless services, a spokeswoman said. For further details, go to the Working Assets web site at https://www.workingassets.com.

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