The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday rejected requests to reschedule oral arguments in the high-profile complaint case pitting the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) against El Paso Corp.

The Commission earlier this month had set the oral arguments to be heard on Dec. 2, but California parties asked that they be pushed back to Dec. 4 so CPUC officials and others would not be forced to travel during the busy Thanksgiving Day weekend. FERC did not cite a reason for its decision to deny the requests.

Before FERC is an administrative law judge’s recommendation that endorses California’s long-standing allegation that El Paso Natural Gas and its merchant affiliate manipulated pipeline capacity into the state in order to ratchet up natural gas prices during the state’s energy crisis (See Daily GPI, Sept. 24). El Paso had requested the agency schedule a full day of oral arguments before making a final 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.

The CPUC/California parties and El Paso will each be allotted one and on-half hours to present their side’s arguments to the Commission.

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