I too expect the appeal to be successful... but Davis needed something to help his popularity.
I'm not immune to the arguements you guys are making. I think a good comparison study should be done that shows what El Paso had historicly done with those lines. If they had run near full capacity prior to and subsequent to the problem area, it would look bad for El Paso. If El Paso traditionally reduced pressure on those lines, then I'd say El Paso was more than likely in the clear.
Gray Davis and Diane Feinstein disgust us all. But that doesn't mean that they can't be right once in a while. This has all the appearance of a CYA campaign, but if El Paso did something wrong, they should be held to account for it.
Gotta say that it looks a lot like Davis needs to recoop some of the $30 billion he's squandered in the last four years though.