The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last 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 NGI, Sept. 30). 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 one-half hours to present their side’s arguments to the Commission.

In another FERC proceeding focusing on possible price manipulation, the CPUC and other state energy officials have asked the Commission to publicly disclose the responses of natural gas marketers to agency questions dealing with the misreporting of gas prices to energy trade newsletters that publish gas price indexes.

“There is no sound reason for keeping this information confidential given the public importance of full disclosure concerning the effect misreporting had on the [energy] market,” said the California parties in urging FERC to “publicly release” marketers’ replies, which were due at the Commission on Nov. 8. The parties include the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, the California Electricity Oversight Board, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co.

In late October, FERC sent out data requests to the largest gas marketers based on 2001 physical sales volumes. It asked them whether they knew of instances where employees tried to manipulate the gas market by supplying false prices on trades to energy trade publications that compile gas price indexes, such as Natural Gas Intelligence’s Daily Gas Price Index, Platts-owned Gas Daily and Inside FERC, and Natural Gas Week.

The Commission said the investigation was non-public, and refused to name the marketers that were targeted, although it was believed to be the top energy marketers.

FERC initiated its probe following disclosures by several companies that their employees submitted or may have submitted bogus prices on gas trades to energy trade publications.

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