Everything is relative as evidenced by Sempra Energy senior management feeling good about a $740 million settlement of more than $1.36 billion in lawsuits and writing down another $64 million against second quarter earnings to account for part of an underground natural gas storage project that proved uneconomic. All in all, the San Diego-based energy holding company last Friday posted solid, if reduced, results quarter-over-quarter (see Daily GPI, Aug. 3).
Lawsuits
Articles from Lawsuits
Producers, Utah Counties Challenge Interior Decision Revoking Leases
Three independent producers and three Utah counties filed separate lawsuits Wednesday challenging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision in February to withdraw 77 oil and natural gas leases from development in Utah, saying that the secretary had exceeded his authority.
Producers, Utah Counties Challenge Interior Decision Revoking Leases
Three independent producers and three Utah counties filed separate lawsuits last Wednesday challenging Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision in February to withdraw 77 oil and natural gas leases from development in Utah, saying that the secretary had exceeded his authority.
Industry Briefs
In what brings to an end nearly all the major lawsuits still pending against the failed energy trader formerly known as Enron Corp., Citigroup will pay Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. $1.66 billion under terms of a MegaClaims settlement approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The settlement was reached March 26, Enron said. Citigroup also agreed that indemnification claims, to which the bankruptcy court had already established a $4 billion claim reserve, and an additional $249.4 million of claims against the Enron estate held by the bank, would be waived. In addition to the cash settlement, about $1.7 billion of cash held in a disputed claims reserve will be included in a special distribution to creditors in the near term, Enron said. “The settlement with Citigroup marks an important milestone in winding up the Enron estate,” said Enron CEO John Ray III. “Upon implementation of the settlement, the Enron estate expects to return approximately $5 billion to creditors, which brings us to nearly $20 billion in total returned to creditors.”
DOE Faces Lawsuits over Transmission Corridor Designations
Environmental and conservation groups have brought or are preparing to bring lawsuits in federal court challenging the Department of Energy’s (DOE) designation of areas in the Southwest and Mid-Atlantic regions as corridors to build power transmission lines.
Proposed CPUC Decision Would Drop Two Sempra Gas Investigations
In what could be a final curtain call for the investigations and lawsuits that have littered the last five years in the wake of California’s 2000-2001 energy crisis, two state regulatory administrative law judges (ALJ) earlier in the month released a proposed decision recommending that regulators drop two investigations of Sempra Energy and its major utilities regarding alleged California border wholesale natural gas price manipulations. To date, Sempra has settled almost all of the allegations in court and regulatory agreements.
Proposed CPUC Decision Would Drop Two Sempra Gas Investigations
In what could be a final curtain call for the investigations and lawsuits that have littered the last five years in the wake of California’s 2000-2001 energy crisis, two state regulatory administrative law judges (ALJ) earlier in the month released a proposed decision recommending that regulators drop two investigations of Sempra Energy and its major utilities regarding alleged California border wholesale natural gas price manipulations. To date, Sempra has settled almost all of the allegations in court and regulatory agreements.
Powder River Producers Seek to Overturn Montana Water Quality Standards
Apparently environmentalists aren’t the only ones filing lawsuits in the Rocky Mountain West. Four gas producers are suing Montana in an effort to overturn water-quality standards that impose what the producers say are “excessive” requirements on the quality of water exiting coalbed methane (CBM) development areas in the Powder River Basin.
Powder River Producers Seek to Overturn Montana Water Quality Standards
Apparently environmentalists aren’t the only ones filing lawsuits in the Rocky Mountain West. Four gas producers are suing Montana in an effort to overturn water-quality standards that impose what the producers say are “excessive” requirements on the quality of water exiting coalbed methane (CBM) development areas in the Powder River Basin.
Williams Agrees to Pay $290M to Settle Shareholder Lawsuits
Williams Cos. on Tuesday announced an agreement in principle to pay $290 million to settle class-action lawsuits that were filed on behalf of purchasers of Williams’ stock between July 24, 2000 and July 22, 2002. The original lawsuit, filed in January 2002, alleged Williams made “material misrepresentations to the markets” to inflate its stock price (see Daily GPI, Jan. 30, 2002).