Consumer

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.

The difficulty in determining savings from switching to another supplier can be the primary reason for not participating in customer choice programs. But a new handy calculator on the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) web site (www.pickocc.org) makes the math easy for residential customers.

Barely visible in this time of extreme budget constraints, the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority (power authority), will reemerge in Sacramento later this month to set the stage for establishing a 22% electricity reserve target for the state next month in one of its first rulemakings as an neophyte state agency spawned by the now long-gone electricity crisis of 2000-2001. One quarter to one half of the new target would come from demand-side management, according to a draft proposal.

A group of 29 stakeholders made up of consumer advocates, membership organizations, trade associations and individual corporations last week sent a letter to members of a House-Senate energy bill conference committee urging the removal of electricity provisions from any final federal energy legislation.

Consumer advocates are expected to be out in force for a series of public hearings scheduled by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on a substantial rate increase request by Las-Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp.

At the urging of U.S. Rep. William J. Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) and 22 other House lawmakers, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has agreed to carry out another review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to assess how the agency’s deregulation activities and its failure to properly oversee energy companies have directly affected consumers.

A broad coalition of natural gas producers, consumer groups and utilities, including Apache Corp. and the American Public Gas Association, used sharp words Wednesday to criticize energy traders and marketers for manipulating gas and electricity markets to create volatility, which, they said, could be stopped if transparent trading systems were put in place by regulators.

Electric deregulation has lost its luster for large retail energy consumers, according to a new survey by RKS Research & Consulting. With California’s energy catastrophe, Enron’s collapse, the weak economy and Sept. 11 weighing heavily on their minds last year, 402 key energy consumers in general lost interest in electric deregulation, North Salem, NY-based RKS said.

Los Angeles County, a multi-million-dollar annual electricity and natural gas consumer, has sued San Diego-based Sempra Energy and one of its two major utility distribution companies, Southern California Gas Co., for unspecified monetary damages, alleging the companies were part of a massive conspiracy to drive up natural gas and electricity costs that ultimately will cost taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Daily News, which includes a strong denial from the companies.