Posted on 04/03/2002 10:08:38 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
California will wait at least two months longer than expected for a decision on billions in refunds it has requested from electricity suppliers, according to a recent decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The decision from a FERC administrative law judge is now expected sometime in the fall, rather than in August.
The delay was caused by difficulty in obtaining information regarding power sale prices during the crisis from the California Independent System Operator, which oversees grid operations in the state.
Gregg Fishman, a spokesman for the ISO, said the data include a very large number of transactions, as well as the calculation of price caps that changed as often as several times daily.
The delay in obtaining the data has also led the FERC to postpone hearings in California regarding the refund request. Five days of hearings are now scheduled to begin Aug. 19 in San Francisco, instead of in June.
Though California initially requested nearly $9 billion in refunds, interim decisions by the FERC appear to have reduced the maximum that might be ordered from this proceeding to no more than $1.5 billion.
An FERC spokesman said the administrative law judge, who operates as a fact-finder, will submit his findings to the full commission for action.
Craig Rose: (619) 293-1814;
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As was surmised here at FR, this whole business was a political smokescreen designed to divert blame from Davis's inept handling of the crisis onto the "greedy, evil Texas energy companies".
Davis never cared whether his charges of gouging could be substantiated. All he wanted was the political mileage he could get.
My guess is that the CAISO will never manage to find and produce the necessary documents because if they did, FERC would conclude that Davis was full of hot air. Can't have that conclusion come out just months before the election.
This case will just quietly dry up and blow away.
I remember the FERC judge saying in settlement hearings that California might get a few hundred thousand dollars; not one point five billion.
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