FERC Chairman Pat Wood on Wednesday told federal lawmakers his agency hopes to be able to hand over to Congress in the next two weeks an interim report on the status of its five-month investigation into allegations that suppliers manipulated natural gas and electricity prices in California and other western energy markets.

“As I promised you and the members of the committee in January, we would like to get and we plan to have in your hands an interim report on where we are this summer,” Wood said during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing examining energy infrastructure issues. “I hope to have that [completed] in the next couple of weeks…,” he told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who has often accused FERC of lax oversight in western energy markets.

“Staff is, as you can imagine, deep into depositions and working with our outside consultants and experts on analyzing what I believe is now our millionth page of data in the market investigation,” Wood said. “But we will have an interim report on what we have learned and what we are looking at so that you can get a sense of the breadth of the review.”

This will be the first investigatory report released on the activities of energy suppliers, many of which also are being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission for their questionable trading practices.

In related action, Wood flatly rejected a request by California Gov. Gray Davis for the Commission to turn over all the materials in its possession related to Enron’s role in manipulating natural gas and electricity prices in the state and elsewhere in the West.

“The Commission [already] has disclosed a large amount of this information. Disclosing all of this information, however, could discourage future voluntary cooperation with Commission investigative efforts and…impair this investigation and other investigations. Thus, I decline to release the remaining information you request at this time,” Wood wrote in a letter to Davis.

In addition, he noted that a number of energy suppliers sought privileged treatment for the documents and records that they submitted to FERC as part of its wide-ranging probe into price manipulation practices during the height of the California energy crisis. The Commission has not had time to rule on these claims for privileged treatment, given that it has been focusing its resources on the investigation, Wood said.

When FERC’s probe is completed, “the staff will report all of its findings to the Commission and the Commission will take all appropriate actions within its statutory authority. In addition, I would support referring the matter to the Department of Justice if the investigation uncovers evidence of criminal, or potentially criminal, activity,” he noted.

In the meantime, Wood reminded Davis that FERC has established a hard price cap of $91.87/MWh to ensure reliability in California’s energy markets through Sept. 30, after which the price cap will be elevated to $250/MWh. In addition, the Commission “in the near future” plans to act on a comprehensive plan for California markets for the post-Sept. 30 period, including the Cal-ISO’s proposed comprehensive market redesign plan, and to address the amount of refunds owed to customers in the state, Wood noted.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.