Charges

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the appeal of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who was convicted in 2006 on 19 criminal charges. In a 3-0 vote, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans last January denied a request to overturn Skilling’s convictions, which the defense claimed were based on incorrect legal theory, faulty jury instructions, a biased jury and prosecutorial misconduct (see NGI, Jan. 12). However, the three-judge panel ordered that Skilling be resentenced, which could reduce the prison term of 24 years and four months. The court agreed with the defense team’s argument that Judge Sim Lake, who presided over Skilling’s trial, had misapplied federal guidelines in enhancing Skilling’s sentence. When Skilling was sentenced, Lake ruled that Skilling’s conduct had endangered a “financial institution” because his actions had damaged the value of Enron’s pension fund. The circuit court found that Enron’s pension fund was not a financial institution. Skilling’s legal team appealed for a review of the case to the Supreme Court in May (see NGI, May 18). The defense team argues that under a federal fraud statute, prosecutors failed to show that Skilling deprived Enron of his “honest services.” The defense also contends that pretrial publicity in Houston, where Enron was headquartered, had prejudiced the jury and led to an unfair trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday agreed to consider the appeal of former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling, who was convicted in 2006 on 19 criminal charges.

With the ink barely dry on FERC’s settlement of the manipulation charges against Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), the Dallas-based energy company Tuesday expressed strong dissatisfaction with the way the agency’s enforcement staff handled the case.

Pacific Gas and Electric issued a systemwide Stage 2 low-inventory OFO for Thursday on its California Gas Transmission system. Noncompliance charges of $1/Dth were set for customers exceeding a 6% tolerance on negative daily imbalances.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Tuesday on its California Gas Transmission system, setting charges of $1/Dth for noncompliance with a positive daily imbalance tolerance of 5%. This followed a customer-specific high-inventory OFO that was implemented Sunday and then allowed to lapse Monday.

Pacific Gas & Electric belatedly Wednesday issued a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday on its California Gas Transmission system. Charges of $1/Dth were set for noncompliance with a positive imbalance tolerance of 8% Thursday. The OFO will continue Friday, but the tolerance will be a bit looser at 13%.

Waiting until early afternoon Thursday, Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Friday, saying it will assess Buy-Back charges in accordance with its tariffs to customers who deliver into its system more than 110% of their actual gas usage on the OFO day.

Sempra Energy’s two major California utilities and Xcel Energy’s Colorado utility have issued projections that their retail natural gas charges will be lowered by about 20% in March. Xcel said last Friday its retail bills in March should be 19-20% lower than in February and 20-21% lower than in March last year.

Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Thursday, saying it will assess Buy-Back charges in accordance with its tariffs to customers who deliver into its system more than 110% of their actual gas usage on the OFO day.