Allegations

FERC issued an order last week denying allegations that FERC Chairman Pat Wood and Commissioner Nora M. Brownell during a March conference call gave Wall Street analysts the heads up on how they intended to vote in pending cases involving manipulation of western energy markets. An agency spokesman defended the two as well.

A FERC spokesman has denied allegations that FERC Chairman Pat Wood and Commissioner Nora M. Brownell during a conference call gave Wall Street analysts the heads up on how they intended to vote in pending cases involving manipulation of western energy markets. The agency quickly followed that up with an order Wednesday defending the two.

Houston-based Entergy-Koch Trading LP revealed last Tuesday that it received a subpoena from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) seeking information on its gas and power trading activities. Entergy-Koch already is conducting a review of its 2000 and 2001 trading activities in response to a March 26 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff report which detailed alleged wash trading activities.

Houston-based Entergy-Koch Trading LP revealed Tuesday that it received a subpoena from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) seeking information on its gas and power trading activities. Entergy-Koch already is conducting a review of its 2000 and 2001 trading activities in response to a March 26 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff report in which it was mentioned.

El Paso Corp. is making “very good progress” in moving toward a settlement of allegations that it withheld transportation capacity from the California market to ratchet up prices for natural gas during the energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, said the company’s new chairman, Ronald L. Kuehn Jr.

Citing allegations from consumer groups and other opponents in past proceedings that were left unaddressed, the five-member California Public Utilities Commission Thursday in a split decision directed its staff to launch an investigation into the operations of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s two major utilities in relation to various merchant energy businesses that Sempra also operates.

Citing allegations from consumer groups and other opponents in past proceedings that were left unaddressed, the five-member California Public Utilities Commission Thursday in a split decision directed its staff to launch an investigation into the operations of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s two major utilities in relation to various merchant energy businesses that Sempra also operates.

As he had against five merchant generators last year, California’s lieutenant governor Cruz Bustamante Wednesday filed a criminal lawsuit in a Los Angeles state Superior Court on behalf of the state’s taxpayers against 38 energy trader/marketers and two McGraw-Hill industry publications that publish natural gas price indices relied on by state officials and the market to establish energy prices.

If Houston-based Enron Corp., the acknowledged largest energy trader in the world, had a wish list of things it might want to add to its bartering bag, it might be to trade in this entire year. So far, the news seems to have gone from bad to worse, with business deals gone sour, the CEO abruptly departing last summer, the first quarterly loss in more than four years, rumors of shady business deals, and as of Friday, a plunging stock price that seems to find no floor.