Appeals

The Bush administration has petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to review a federal judge’s decision in June that blocked oil and natural gas exploration off the coast of California until the state’s Coastal Commission could assess the environmental impact of future drilling activity.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco took little time in rejecting an emergency request by the California legislature to force FERC to cap wholesale energy prices. The request was filed last Tuesday and tossed out by Friday. The panel ruled that the legislature did not demonstrate that the case warranted emergency action.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco last week rejected a petition by the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX) to stay three critical elements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Dec. 15 order, which mapped out a series of reforms for chronic problems in the California wholesale power market.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco rejected petitions by the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX) to stay three critical elements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Dec. 15 order, which mapped out a series of reforms for the out-of-control California wholesale power market.

Seeking to set aside what it called an “inappropriate”multi-billion verdict in which a jury awarded the State of Alabama$87 million in compensatory damages and $3.4 billion in punitivedamages over unpaid royalty fees, ExxonMobil Corp. filed an appealyesterday with the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, AL.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the mostsignificant aspects of FERC Orders 888 and 889 in a ruling releasedon Friday. “Finding few defects in the orders, we uphold them innearly all respects,” the court stated in its decision(Transmission Access Policy Study Group, et al. v. FERC No.97-1715).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last weekreversed and remanded a FERC order rejecting Transcontinental GasPipe Line’s bid to levy two-part, “firm-to-the-wellhead” (FTW)rates on certain production-area customers served by the line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia last weekreversed and remanded a FERC order rejecting Transcontinental GasPipe Line Corp’s bid to levy two-part, “firm-to-the-wellhead” (FTW)rates on certain production-area customers served by the line.

Its prior ruling basically putting the Kansas ad valorem taxcontroversy to rest was based on two incorrect factual assumptions,the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit conceded last week.But despite the errors, the court said the thrust of its opinionremains the same — Kansas producers owe refunds to customers whopurchased gas in the early 1980s at prices that, because theyincluded the tax, were above the maximum legal limit.