Ninth Circuit Court revives California bid for electricity refunds(b/c Enron Tapes Ignored)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

A federal appeals court has revived California's request for at least $1 billion in refunds to electricity customers, saying federal regulators who denied the repayments had ignored tapes in which Enron traders joked about gouging customers during the energy crisis of 2000-2001.

The ruling was issued Friday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which repeatedly has found that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission abused its authority or violated its own rules in considering the state's claims of multibillion-dollar overcharges during the energy crisis.

The commission eventually imposed limits on the energy charges in mid-2001 but has rejected most of the state's refund requests. Friday's ruling was the third since 2004 in which the appeals court has ordered the commission to reconsider separate refund claims of at least $1 billion.

In Friday's case, the court overturned two of the commission's decisions on refunds that California is seeking for power purchased by a state agency from suppliers in the Pacific Northwest.



Read more: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/25/MNHERP3ID.DTL

[Peace Patriot]

1. Ha! HA!!

Cheney's hunting partners will probably overturn, but it's nice to be reminded of what justice looks like, before they do. Just so we don't forget.

[Roland99]

2. If only that weren't true

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. The "Grandma Millie" tapes - proof of conspiracy, gouging and gaming the grid

Now, just exactly who is on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and why do they abuse their authority and violate their own rules? Are they just more corrupt cronies that have been seeded throughout the Federal system? This bears it own investigation.

Bring it on for Grandma Millie and the hundreds of thousands of people and businesses that harmed badly during this California energy crisis.

[LiberalFighter]

4. They should get fined big time personally for abuse of their power

[druidity33]

5. isn't the Ninth

the same court that recently came out with the "I feel like i'm in Alice in Wonderland here?" line?

The continual thorn in the * Administration's side? Love it...

[eridani]

6. Anybody in WA or OR--

--should write to their congresscritters ASAP to try to get a piece of any compensation. Cantwell has been particularly good on this issue.

[Demeter]

7. Bush's Worst Nightmare

Truth