Judge delays ruling on energy report concerning Avista

The Spokesman-Review | 5-21-2003 | Alison Boggs

[lilylangtree]

A federal judge decided Tuesday not to issue a decision until next month on whether Avista Corp. manipulated West Coast energy markets in 2000-2001.

Responding to a federal report absolving the Spokane energy company of wrongdoing, the judge decided Tuesday to give dissenting parties a week to respond.

Staff members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week reiterated findings that Avista did nothing wrong during the energy crisis. The report repeated the findings of an agreement reached between FERC staff and Avista in January.

On Tuesday, FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr. decided to give dissenting parties--namely the state of California and the city of Tacoma--until May 27 to respond to the FERC staff's latest report. Then Avista and FERC staff will have until June 2 to rebut those comments.

Wagner said he will decide "sometime in June" whether he will approve the agreement and send it to the FERC board for a final decision or whether he'll hold a hearing.

"We're pleased that the trial staff was able to reiterate . . . that there was no wrongdoing on our part," said Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof.

Avista was investigated by FERC last year due to a series of energy trades with Enron and Portland General Electric, an Enron subsidiary. The agreement issued by FERC staff in January absolved Avista of any wrongdoing. However, a report released in March by a different set of FERC staff members that detailed manipulation of West Coast energy markets by numerous companies implicated the Spokane company again.

California and Tacoma have called for the agreement reached between FERC staff and Avista to be thrown out. The Avista case is one of many that California and Tacoma hope will return billions of dollars in refunds as the market manipulation is investigated. The parties want reimbursements from energy marketers, whom they accuse of overcharging customers.

[lilylangtree]

Don't blame California for wanting money back. Anyway, this is for everyone's information that follows the Enron scandal.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the alert!

Calpowercrisis:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using Calpowercrisis, click below:
	click here >>>	Calpowercrisis	<<< click here
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)