Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Pat Wood said the Commission would take the unusual action of hearing oral arguments in the high-profile complaint case pitting the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) against El Paso Corp. Wood said at the start of the Commission’s regular meeting on Wednesday that the arguments would be heard Dec. 2. He gave no other details.

Before the Commission is an administrative law judge’s recommendation that endorses California’s long-standing allegation that El Paso and its merchant affiliate manipulated pipeline capacity into the state in order to raise gas prices during the state’s energy crisis (see Daily GPI, Oct. 21). El Paso had requested that the Commission schedule a full day of oral arguments before making a decision in the case. While it is not part of regular procedure, the Commission has in the past heard oral arguments on certain prominent cases with broad consequences.

At a press briefing, Wood said FERC expected to issue an order within the next few days that would spell out the “logistics” of the oral arguments, such as how much time each side will be allotted.

The chairman said the Commission still was intent on quickly resolving the long-standing dispute between California regulators and El Paso, but he seemed to shy away from his previous commitment to issue an order by the end of the year.

Noting that this was a “pretty juicy case,” Wood said he has a four-foot high stack of records from the complaint case on his desk, and has been able to only plow through about six inches so far.

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