Another report came out today on top of last week's revelations from the CPUC that electric generation capacity was withheld, right around the time the San Jose city council caved into state government pressure.

This time it deals with the reason your PG&E bill went up last year. Gas pipeline capacity was being witheld and that drove the cost of natural gas from $3.50 to $250 per unit, according to ISO data.

see:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020923/utilities_elpaso_3.html

FERC Chief Judge Curtis Wagner issued a report finding that El Paso during November 2000 through March 2001 "withheld extremely large amounts of capacity that could have flowed to its California delivery points."

During that period, California struggled with a jump in prices for natural gas, which is used to fuel many power plants, and with rolling blackouts.

El Paso and its affiliates were obligated to ship about 3.29 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day to California delivery points. But Wagner said the company's average flow was only 2.59 bcf per day during that period, which was 79 percent of its design capacity.

In addition to the shortfall, El Paso could have shipped an extra 100 million cubic feet per day through its Peco station, "which it chose not to do, even though it had a capacity shortage in its system," the judge wrote.

The California Public Utility Commission, PG&E Corp.'s (NYSE:PCG - News) Pacific Gas & Electric and Edison International's (NYSE:EIX - News) Southern California Edison claim El Paso's actions contributed to a sharp rise in prices and cost Californians an extra $3.3 billion.