Rot in Hell, El Paso Gas…
The nation’s biggest natural gas pipeline company illegally manipulated the California market during the energy crisis, a federal regulatory judge said Monday in a ruling that could bolster wide-ranging claims for refunds.
El Paso Corp. used a variety of strategies in 2000-01 to withhold an average of at least 345 million cubic feet of natural gas a day from California customers, creating an artificial shortage that drove up prices, concluded Judge Curtis L. Wagner Jr. of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Among the maneuvers, he said: El Paso failed to use 21% of the capacity of its pipeline to the state.