Ceding to requests by both the prosecution and the defense, the trial of three former El Paso Corp. natural gas traders accused of reporting false pricing information to industry publications has been delayed for six months. U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon approved a joint motion by government prosecutors and the defense teams that will allow the defendants more time to prepare for their trial. A grand jury issued a superseding indictment against James Brooks, Wesley Walton and James Phillips in September. They were to go to trial in November. However, Harmon moved it to May 14. Brooks, a former managing director of El Paso Merchant Energy, was charged in 2005, and former gas traders Walton and Phillips were charged in 2004 with trying to manipulate published indexes by submitting bogus price information to NGI and Inside FERC’s Gas Market Report between 1999 and 2002 (see NGI, Nov. 7, 2005; Dec. 6, 2004). The superseding indictment in September charged each man with one count of conspiracy, 24 counts of false reporting and 24 counts of wire fraud under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Retail rates for Oregon’s three natural gas utilities will increase Nov. 1, but to a lesser extent than previously anticipated, the Oregon Public Utility Commission announced last Wednesday. In each case the higher rates reflect higher wholesale commodity charges for gas, the PUC said. Charges for Northwest Natural Gas customers will increase 3.5%, or $2.78/month for the average residential customer. Rates paid by Cascade Natural Gas customers will increase 7.9%, or $5.73/month. And rates for Avista Utilities natural gas utility customers in Oregon will increase 7.1%, or $5.30/month. Commercial/industrial rates will increase in ranges of 3.8-6.4%, 9.0-9.4% and 7.9-8.3%, respectively, for the three gas distribution companies. “The silver lining is that the rate increases are less than the companies predicted to us back in mid-July and are not nearly as high as we experienced the last two years,” said PUC Chairman Lee Beyer, noting the smaller increases are due to what he called “a combination of reduced demand, no major hurricanes to disrupt supply and increased domestic production.”

Scana Corp. subsidiary PSNC Energy said that the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) has issued an order in the company’s general rate case application authorizing the utility to increase its rates and charges by $6 million annually. Gastonia, NC-headquartered PSNC Energy, which distributes natural gas to 424,000 customers in 96 North Carolina cities and communities, said the new rates and charges will go into effect with November bills. The NCUC order provides for an increase in PSNC Energy’s annual natural gas margin revenues of $15.2 million, or 2.6%, which is offset by a $9.2 million reduction in PSNC Energy’s fixed gas costs. The end result is a net annual increase of $6 million, or an overall increase of 1%. The impact on residential customers averages out to an increase of approximately $2.24 a month. “In the past eight years, we’ve invested approximately $321 million upgrading and expanding our gas delivery system to meet the needs of our customers,” said Rusty Harris, PSNC Energy’s president. “It’s essential that we be allowed to recover costs associated with growing and maintaining our infrastructure. The commission’s order will allow us to continue operating a reliable and efficient system for the growing areas we serve.” The approved rates are based on an original cost rate base of $620 million and an overall rate of return on rate base of 8.9%. The allowed return on common equity was not disclosed.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) assured Washington state regulators recently that it is fixing a natural gas utility back-billing problem that in extreme cases had customers billed for services done as many as six years ago. The flap arose in recent weeks when customers who were under-billed or not billed at all for certain past periods began receiving back-billings, some totaling thousands of dollars. By state law, no utility is to go more than two consecutive months without sending a bill to a residential customer. Most of the problems for the Puget Energy utility were caused by defective meters in most cases, PSE told the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). In the first half of this year, the WUTC received 32 back-billing customer complaints. After publicizing the issue, another two dozen additional complaints came in — all about excess back-bills. An 85-year-old woman was billed $1,900 for service dating back four years, according to local news media reports. In another case, a customer who had not been billed for six years received a bill for $1,800. PSE officials told the state regulators that they identified most of the defective meters and the utility has a new system in place to identify them in the future. In the meantime, some administrative processing problems delayed the mailing of some of the back-bills. Two years ago, the WUTC warned PSE about its back-billing practices.

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