Case

California regulators on Thursday dropped another hammer on Pacific Gas and Electric Co.(PG&E) for its self-reported communications violations regarding a pending rate case. Separately, the regulators in executive session slapped a $10.85 million staff citation on PG&E for a natural gas explosion at a vacant residence in Carmel, CA, in March.

Two billion-dollar state regulatory cases crucial to Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) future natural gas operations are in limbo following the recent email-driven communications violations scandal involving the combination utility and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) (see Daily GPI, Sept. 16).

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) regulatory and legal woes will not be over anytime soon, and in the meantime the combination utility continues to push back against what it considers excessive penalties proposed by state regulators, CEO Tony Earley said Tuesday.

A utility consumer watchdog group won a partial victory Monday in its attempt to hold up an ongoing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas pipeline and storage rate case until the utility turns over more of the emails it has revealed over the past four weeks showing communications violations with state regulators, some of which were centered on the gas case.

Ohio’s Seventh District Court of Appeals has reversed a key decision by a lower court and ruled in favor of a small oil and gas company in a class action case that affected hundreds of angry landowners and threatened the industry’s ability to protect the terms of its leases.

PDC Energy Inc. has reached a settlement on a long-standing class action lawsuit with a group of investors, which should allow the company to get out from under legal fees and focus on its nascent core areas in Colorado and Ohio.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co., still facing multi-billion-dollar penalties for its natural gas system safety lapses, was granted a 2014 general rate increase of $460 million, or 6.9% above current rates, by California regulators Thursday with heavy implications for its current and future safety programs. This case is separate from still-pending pipeline penalty cases (see Daily GPI, May 7, 2013).

FERC staff is seeking a pair of subpoenas to gather testimony in its six-year old case over allegations that BP America Inc. manipulated Houston Ship Channel (HSC) natural gas prices.

ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary XTO Energy Inc. has filed a motion with a Pennsylvania court to dismiss multiple criminal charges against it, saying that it has been unfairly targeted by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, who filed the charges last year (seeShale Daily, Sept. 12, 2013).