Energy

Who’ll pay $5.1 billion electric bill?

October 23, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>UTILITIES: Deregulation and soaring costs have created a politically charged dilemma.</h3><p class="source">Orange County Register</p> <p>Customers of the state's two largest power companies will soon learn whether they'll have to pay a $5.1 billion electric bill.</p>

Oil Sent Out of Midwest on Purpose, Study Says

October 19, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Chicago Sun-Times</p> <p>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.</p>

Oil Companies Created Midwest Gap, Group Says

October 19, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Chicago Tribune</p> <p>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.</p>

Report Accuses Oil Companies of Cutting Inventory

October 18, 2000  ·  Jamie Court

<p class="source">Associated Press</p> <p>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.</p>

Gas Hikes Could Become Annual Event

October 18, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">United Press International</p> <p>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.</p>

Watchdog Group Goes After PUC Commissioner Duque

October 5, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">San Francisco Chronicle</p> <p>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.</p>

Utility bills may charge up election

September 27, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Stockton Record</p> <p>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.</p>

PG&E, Edison seek OK to bill consumers for price-hike debt

September 27, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">San Diego Union Tribune</p> <p>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</p>

Power Plants Ask for Huge Tax Breaks

September 25, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Counties resist pressure to reduce valuations</h3><p class="source">San Francisco Chronicle</p> <p>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.</p>

PG&E rate shock feared

September 21, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>Higher charges will be sought, but CEO says they would be spread out</h3><p class="source">San Jose Mercury News</p> <p>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.</p>

Higher utility bills a step closer

September 18, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<h3>PUC to hear companies' plans to pass costs onto customers</h3><p class="source">Stockton Record</p> <p>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.</p>

Race Is On To Provide Help On Electric Woes

August 31, 2000  ·  Consumer Watchdog

<p class="source">Sacramento Bee</p> <p>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</p>