IDACORP Inc. revealed in a federal filing that it has received and will respond to a new request for information about natural gas prices that it has provided to unnamed industry publications. The company said, however, it did not engage in any illegal transactions and believes data it supplied to publications was bona fide. Federal officials did not disclose any other details of the investigation.

The request for information was made on Jan. 14 by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which has been investigating several other energy companies for apparently providing fraudulent price information to one or more publications, according to IDACORP. The company, which is parent to Idaho Power, disclosed the CFTC’s latest request in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 24.

The CFTC last year had subpoenaed the Boise-based company as part of the agency’s investigation into companies that may have potentially engaged in round-trip energy trades (see Daily GPI, Nov. 12, 2002). The earlier subpoena also applied to its marketing subsidiary, IDACORP Energy.

IDACORP Inc. disclosed in an 8-K filing with the SEC that on Jan. 14, the CFTC asked for documents “related to certain wholesale energy transactions and information supplied to energy industry publications.” The company said it would respond to the CFTC, and said it and its subsidiaries “again deny engaging in any round trip or wash trade transactions, and they believe the only information provided to energy industry publications was actual transaction data.”

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