🚀 go-pugleaf

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The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered federal energy
regulators to reconsider if Portland General Electric owes millions of
dollars for overcharging for wholesale energy during the power crisis in
early 2001, a decision that could cost Oregon's largest private utility
millions. 

The order, issued Friday, sends the case back to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission. 

In its order, the court orders the commission to consider new evidence
of market manipulation and to include PGE's sales of power to California
Energy Resources Scheduling, which had been excluded from previous
hearings. 

The case concerns complaints that PGE, as a subsidiary of Enron Corp.,
charged unjust and unreasonable rates for electricity on the spot market
between Christmas Day 2000 and June 20, 2001, and that it participated
in an effort to manipulate the market. 

PGE was both a buyer and seller of wholesale power at that time. 

The case has a long and tortured history. 

An administrative law judge recommended that claims for refunds be
dismissed in September 2001. FERC reopened the case in December 2002,
but the following June, it issued an order to terminate the proceedings
and deny claims for refunds. 

In July 2003, several of the losing parties sought a new hearing from
FERC, but lost in 2004. 

That set the stage for an appeal to the Ninth Circuit. 

In its order, the court said FERC did not adequately explain how it
reviewed evidence of market manipulation in California and its potential
ties to the Northwest power market. It also said FERC should not have
excluded energy purchases by the California Energy Resources Scheduling
division in the Northwest spot market. 

In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissions, PGE
officials said they could not predict the outcome of the matter. 

According to its 2006 annual report, PGE has faces numerous suits
alleging it engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices associated
with the energy market in 2000 and 2001. 

The Montana Attorney General filed a complaint in Montana state court in
2003 alleging that PGE and numerous other defendants' energy practices
were unfair and deceptive. 

Two other suits specifically allege it, along with co-defendants,
actively manipulated the power market to their own advantage. 

In the first, Wah Chang, a division of TDY Industries, sued PGE and 15
other companies alleging that it and its parent Enron illegally raised
the price of power by creating a shortage, or the appearance of a
shortage, of power. Wah Chang seeks $30 million in compensatory damages
and triple damages. 

In a related case, the city of Tacoma, Wash., sued PGE and 55 other
defendants in U.S. District Court in Washington for manipulating the
power market. The city wants three times its damages of $175 million. 

The Wah Chang and Tacoma cases were simultaneously appealed to the Ninth
Circuit Court on March 10, 2005.

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