Posted on 06/14/2004 1:54:36 PM PDT by Robert357
Pat Wood chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, expects California will recieve an additional $3 billion in refunds from energy traders who allegedly manipulated the energy markets in 2000 and 2001.
Woods comments came in response to a letter sent last week from California's Democratic Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer demanding $8.9 billion in refunds for their state for alleged market manipulation by Enron and others. The Senators letter came after the release of the audiotapes of Enron power traders gloating over ill-gotten gains.
-snip-A previous estimate of refunds provided by a FERC administrative law judge (ALJ)suggested that refunds would be in the range of $1.8 billion. ALJ Birchman made that estimate in...December 2002.......indicated that approximately $1.2 billion would still be owed to suppliers from (California) buyers.
Birchman'sestimates, however, were made prior to finding that natural-gas price reporting was manipulated by some electricity providers and before details of what has been called the Enron-like trading srategies allegedly employed by marketers and generators alike came to light.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsdata.com ...
I am beginning to wonder what the election year California press release deal will look like!
Truly interesting.
What I posted was from Clearing UP. Check out the URL good for only a week to see that a global settlement is still possibly in the works and that Cal AG Lockyer is trying to gain political standing from this.
I still think that the ISO, Cal PX, and DWP all were as guilty as the rest of the worst of the energy traders, but who knows what will happen.
Kind of some interesting stuff coming out of FERC regarding Enron settlements and what California might get.
At this point, I don't know who owes whom money. Last I heard, California still owed some producers money for power bought but never paid for because they disputed the charges. This $3 billion refund might be a credit against the $8 billion (or whatever the figure is) that California still owes.
smud too,they never name BChydro either
I have heard a figure bandied by a vulture capitalist that California owes over $20 billion when all the contracts are totaled. Don't know if it's true, but it's scary if it is.
Gosh, I hope it's not that high. I'm not sure I ever heard that high of a figure, but anything more than a couple of billion is going to be a budget buster.
Thank you Arnold for working SO hard to, "renegotiate the contracts."
The further problem was that California was suppose to pay its $3 billion to various sources including the Enron bankruptcy court and then file its claims for $1.8 billion to various power marketing companies (some of whom have declared bankruptcy.)
The ALJ didn't want to get his hands dirty in hassling with whether he as a FERC ALJ had priority in settling claims over a federal bankruptcy judge. The various folks who owed and needed to pay money all had their own ideas about who and when they wanted to pay and whether the payments would be net of any bankruptcy claims. A real mess!
To complicate things even further, some of the generating companies were California electric utilities so the "net" California impact was unclear.
Now Woods is saying that no, based on latest bean counting it is looking like California utilities are really owed about $3 billion more thant the original $1.8 billion in refunds. Still not sure if they have figured out who is wihtin Califronia and who is not.
So it is now looking like there may actually (depending on if the companies have any cash or in bankruptcy are forced to pay pennies on the dollars) either no $ leaving California purchasers to the "generating companies" or maybe some money coming back to California. Hard to say.
This might also just be FERC trying to pressure folks to get to the settlement table and cut a deal they can live with. I am not sure that Solomon could come up with a fair settlement on this one.
Just put my check in the mail. Ah appreciate it.
And, of course, the final decision isn't up to Pat Wood. He's just expressing his opinion.
Shep said Enron had coached "an Oregon utility" on how to withold power from California to create a shortage in order to drive prices up.
My sense is that Bush wants a corporate sacrifice before the election to show he is "tough on corruption", and it's shaping up like Enron is the virgin of choice. (Maybe Bush really thinks he can win in California if he sends them a few billion. Pffft!)
So all the Davis/Lockyer lies told over and over again have paid off. Goebbels would be proud.
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