|
|
Article: ALJ decision threatens El Paso since possible downgrades loom.
- Article from:
- Natural Gas Week
- Article date:
- September 30, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Energy Intelligence Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
El Paso had maintained an investment-grade credit rating through the past year's horrors in the merchant energy business, but an unexpected decision last week by an administrative law judge (ALJ) at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) threatens to push El Paso into the same "junk" credit category as Dynegy, Enron, and Williams.
Chief ALJ Curtis Wagner found that El Paso had withheld capacity on the El Paso Natural Gas system at the peak of California's electricity crisis in part by operating at less than maximum capacity at all times. He also recommended that the commission impose unspecified penalties on El Paso.
Investors and more than a ...