Specter

By last Friday, Sempra Energy’s stock price was clawing its way back upward after dropping nearly 10% earlier in the week on the news that a California state Superior Court judge had rejected the company’s multiple requests for a summary judgment, declaring that a class action lawsuit against Sempra was ready for a jury trial some time next year.

By last Friday, Sempra Energy’s stock price was clawing its way back upward after dropping nearly 10% earlier in the week on the news that a California state Superior Court judge had rejected the company’s multiple requests for a summary judgment, declaring that a class action lawsuit against Sempra was ready for a jury trial some time next year.

PG&E Corp. raised the specter of the Enron calamity by announcing that it may have to amend its financial statements potentially back to 1999 and place certain “leases” on its balance sheet that would increase its total assets and liabilities by $1 billion. PG&E said it discovered errors in the accounting treatment of several leases related to merchant power plant financings. Nevertheless, it said any financial revisions would have no material impact on its current income statement.

PG&E Corp. raised the specter of the Enron calamity by announcing that it may have to amend its financial statements potentially back to 1999 and place certain “leases” on its balance sheet that would increase its total assets and liabilities by $1 billion. PG&E said it discovered errors in the accounting treatment of several leases related to merchant power plant financings. Nevertheless, it said any financial revisions would have no material impact on its current income statement.

Along with the specter of rolling blackouts caused by powersupply shortages in California during peak-demand periods thissummer, the state’s increasingly constrained natural gas pipelineinfrastructure may be bogged down by peak load demands running asmuch as 2 Bcf/d over system capacity, an energy teleconference wastold Wednesday. At stake are billions of dollars of extra coststhat could be caused as much by natural gas constraints as byshortages of megawatts.