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Myers presses PGE trading case
By Sarah Linn, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 | 1 comment(s)
PORTLAND - Attorney General Hardy Myers is pressing his investigation of Portland General Electric's trading practices during the 2001 Western energy crisis, despite the utility's protests that the case has been effectively settled.
Myers filed a brief Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court asking a judge to enforce access to company documents. The attorney general also asked a federal court to dismiss PGE's complaint that Myers's office is exceeding its jurisdiction.
The briefs come as Oregon's largest utility fights allegations that it worked with Enron Corporation to rig energy markets and reap additional profits from inflated electricity rates.
PGE recently reached a settlement with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, providing $800,000 in rate relief for PGE customers. Myers represented the watchdog group.
That settlement goes before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for final review today, said Kregg Arntson, PGE spokesman.
PGE officials insist that the agreement bars all parties - including the attorney general's office - from pursuing the matter further. But Myers' spokesman, Kevin Neely, says PGE reached the settlement with the utility commission, not the attorney general's office.
"This is after over 18 months of investigation already conducted by FERC," Arntson said. "Opening up another investigation over much the same material seems completely redundant to us."
But the attorney general's office says it must exhaust all questions of market manipulation to protect Oregon consumers.
"We were perfectly happy settling those claims," Neely said. "But if some information came up later that changed things, we didn't want to have our hands tied."
In the settlement, PGE identified 17 days when it may have been used as an intermediary in Death Star transactions. But Arntson said the utility participated unwittingly in the 2000 trades, and acknowledged its failure to post such dealings on its Web site as administrative errors.
"We do not believe that our traders did anything improper in their power trading activities," Arntson said.
A Multnomah County judge will hear arguments in the information request on Jan. 9, Neely said.
Myers filed a brief Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court asking a judge to enforce access to company documents. The attorney general also asked a federal court to dismiss PGE's complaint that Myers's office is exceeding its jurisdiction.
The briefs come as Oregon's largest utility fights allegations that it worked with Enron Corporation to rig energy markets and reap additional profits from inflated electricity rates.
PGE recently reached a settlement with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, providing $800,000 in rate relief for PGE customers. Myers represented the watchdog group.
That settlement goes before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for final review today, said Kregg Arntson, PGE spokesman.
PGE officials insist that the agreement bars all parties - including the attorney general's office - from pursuing the matter further. But Myers' spokesman, Kevin Neely, says PGE reached the settlement with the utility commission, not the attorney general's office.
"This is after over 18 months of investigation already conducted by FERC," Arntson said. "Opening up another investigation over much the same material seems completely redundant to us."
But the attorney general's office says it must exhaust all questions of market manipulation to protect Oregon consumers.
"We were perfectly happy settling those claims," Neely said. "But if some information came up later that changed things, we didn't want to have our hands tied."
In the settlement, PGE identified 17 days when it may have been used as an intermediary in Death Star transactions. But Arntson said the utility participated unwittingly in the 2000 trades, and acknowledged its failure to post such dealings on its Web site as administrative errors.
"We do not believe that our traders did anything improper in their power trading activities," Arntson said.
A Multnomah County judge will hear arguments in the information request on Jan. 9, Neely said.
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