Latest Energy Releases

Federal Panel Says Electricity Crisis Is Product Of Flaws In Deregulation, But It Stops Short Of Ordering Reductions In Sky-High Prices

Los Angeles Times

California's electricity crisis is the product of flaws in the deregulated market and a long-term shortage of power in the state, federal regulators said Wednesday, proposing sweeping changes to fix the $ 23-billion electricity trade.

Changes proposed in deregulation plan

San Francisco Chronicle

However, consumer groups dismissed these moves as a ``whitewash.'' They lashed out at the commission for not ordering ratepayer refunds despite regulators concluding that California electricity costs are ``unjust and unreasonable.''

Electricity: At Hearing Today, The Utilities Are Expected To Push For An End To The Freeze, While Aiming For A 10% Increase

Los Angeles Times

Southern California Edison executives said Thursday that their proposal to boost electricity rates would increase a typical residential bill by about $ 5.50 a month. But consumer advocates viewed the matter differently,

UTILITIES: Deregulation and soaring costs have created a politically charged dilemma.

Orange County Register

Customers of the state's two largest power companies will soon learn whether they'll have to pay a $5.1 billion electric bill.

Chicago Sun-Times

The oil industry intentionally sent reserves out of the Midwest and exported other supplies to foreign countries earlier this year to artificially create shortages, a new study asserts.

Chicago Tribune

A California-based consumer watchdog group on Wednesday accused the major oil companies of creating a gasoline shortage that sent prices soaring to more than $2 a gallon in Chicago and Milwaukee by shipping inventories to other states and abroad.

Associated Press

A nonprofit consumer rights organization released a study Wednesday accusing oil companies of intentionally sending reserves out of the Midwest to create shortages that sent prices higher than $2 a gallon in some parts of the region last summer.

United Press International

A consumer group sympathetic to environmental interests said Wednesday the gasoline price hikes of the summer of 2000 could become an annual event unless the federal government intervenes.

San Francisco Chronicle

A government watchdog group launched a legal maneuver yesterday to oust one of the state's five utility commissioners because he invested nearly $10,000 in a mobile-phone company his agency regulates.

Stockton Record

A second major utility has announced its intention to bill customers for costs associated with this summer's skyrocketing power prices, but consumer advocates tried to throw up a roadblock Tuesday by injecting the issue into state political races.

San Diego Union Tribune

The crisis caused by electrical deregulation -- which has blown budgets across San Diego -- is now leading Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric to press for approval to back-charge their customers more than $4 billion for this summer's pr

Counties resist pressure to reduce valuations

San Francisco Chronicle

Companies that bought up power plants under the state's deregulation program are now filing challenges to county tax assessments, arguing in some cases that the plants are worth only a fraction of their sale prices.

Higher charges will be sought, but CEO says they would be spread out

San Jose Mercury News

PG&E may seek to lift a state cap on Northern California's electric rates later this year, the company's top official said Wednesday, potentially exposing consumers to rate hikes months earlier than the utility company had indicated last week.

PUC to hear companies' plans to pass costs onto customers

Stockton Record

The California Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday opened a door that could allow utilities to double the price their customers pay for electricity despite a state-imposed rate freeze.

Sacramento Bee

With their final adjournment scheduled for midnight tonight, state legislators are in a frantic, last-minute struggle to ease the sky-high electric bills enraging San Diego-area residents and head off possible rate increases for millions of other Californ