California

The sole remaining Republican appointee on the five-member California Public Utilities Commission, Henry Duque, received a four-week extension to his term to have time to file an appeal of an earlier ruling regarding alleged conflict-of-interest violations involving his ownership of telecommunications stock of a company the CPUC regulates. The extension was granted despite an earlier court ruling recommending his removal from the state regulatory panel.

Enron’s bankruptcy reorganization plan and the continuing revelations about its trading manipulations in the California market, left the proposed sale of its Portland General Electric utility to neighboring Portland-based Northwest Natural Gas Corp. hanging on an increasingly thin thread of hope last week. Portland General landed on Standard & Poor’s “CreditWatch Negative” listing, with a notation that if the sale unravels the electric utility’s ratings could fall to the “speculative” level.

On the eve of President Bush’s campaign visit to Los Angeles last Monday, internal documents from Enron to a California state legislative investigative committee have revealed that the two leading Republican state legislators last year sought campaign donations from the Houston-based energy company as it was beginning to spin out of control toward its eventual bankruptcy filing, according to a front-page report in last Monday’s Los Angeles Times.

The California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) newest member and fourth Democratic appointee, Michael Peevey, joined in a new coalition majority Thursday on a narrow (3-2), politically charged vote to make the CPUC’s earlier suspension of retail direct access effective on the date of the original decision, Sept. 20. The vote derails the CPUC president’s desire to make the suspension retroactive to July 1 and may have implications for future issues facing the regulators.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Friday, but its neighbor to the south, Southern California Gas, had a similar Overnominations Day notice in place Saturday.

As an example of just how far the Enron effect is carrying, one of the three Republicans opposing incumbent California Gov. Gray Davis in this year’s elections drew criticism Tuesday because a small Houston-based energy firm in which he invested has ties to one of Enron’s off-balance-sheet partnerships.

On a strictly partisan 3-2 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission last Wednesday blocked a proposed extension of pipeline capacity allocations to natural gas core aggregators on two western Canadian pipelines feeding Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s affiliate interstate transmission pipeline in the Pacific Northwest. The aggregators were seeking the same assurance of access to reasonably priced supplies that the core customers served by the utility already receive.

San Diego, CA-based Sempra Energy Thursday reported unaudited 2001 earnings of $518 million, or $2.52/diluted share, compared to $429 million, or $2.06/diluted share in 2000, a 22% increase, including a bigger share from its nonutility companies. Revenues were $8 billion for the full year in 2001, compared with $7 billion the previous year — a 14% rise.

On a strictly partisan 3-2 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission Wednesday blocked a proposed extension of pipeline capacity allocations to natural gas core aggregators on two western Canadian pipelines feeding Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s affiliate interstate transmission pipeline in the Pacific Northwest. The aggregators were seeking the same assurance of access to reasonably priced supplies that the core customers served by the utility already receive.