Deeply

As the deeply split state regulatory commission was holding its last acrimonious meeting Thursday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his choices for two seats on the five-member California Public Utilities Commission that become vacant the end of this month. The governor has chosen an energy efficiency advocate and a Silicon Valley-based telecommunications/information technology entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist.

A major interstate gas pipeline group said Friday it was “deeply concerned by the policy implications” of a FERC judge’s ruling last month that El Paso Natural Gas withheld pipeline capacity from customers during the California energy crisis by not operating its system at the maximum allowable pressure (MAOP). The decision in the high-profile complaint case could potentially affect all interstate pipelines, subjecting their operational decisions to the “second-guessing” of regulators, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) warned.