Calif report designed to garner 'headlines,' not solutions: FERC

Washington (Platts)--13Apr2004

A report released by the California attorney general Tuesday claiming that the
US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission misapplied federal law during the
2000-2001 energy crisis is largely a political document being used to generate
headlines rather than find solution's to the state's energy woes, a FERC
spokesman said. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer, in a white paper,
said FERC used the so-called "filed-rate doctrine" to justify high prices
during the energy crisis. By doing so, the commission allowed sellers to
charge unusually high prices for power and limited its ability to determine
whether sellers were overcharging consumers, Lockyer said. But FERC's
spokesman said these allegations are patently false and geared only to
politicize the situation. "This is a cheap political stunt designed to
generate headlines, not solutions, to California's problems," he said.

The "continued politicization of the energy crisis will only serve to
discourage investment necessary to assure that power shortages and price
spikes don't occur again," the FERC spokesman said. He noted that FERC, since
June 2001, has acted to cap wholesale prices, rework the state's energy
market, and initiate a handful of investigations into whether market
participants behaved ethically during the energy crisis.

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