Mirroring similar action he took last summer in the face ofskyrocketing wholesale power prices, California Gov. Gray Davis onFriday asked his state attorney general to investigate the recentsevere spike in wholesale natural gas prices at the Californiaborder, where prices are among the highest in the nation. In aseparate action, two class action lawsuits were filed Monday inCalifornia Superior Court, alleging that gas and electricity pricespikes are the result of a four-year-old "conspiracy" by SouthernCalifornia Gas, San Diego Gas and Electric and El Paso Natural Gas.(see separate story)
Coral Energy Resources, a Shell subsidiary, on Thursday became what may be one of the last of many energy trading companies to have settled charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) of false price reporting and attempted manipulation of the natural gas market. Coral paid a $30 million civil penalty in the settlement but neither admitted nor denied the charges.