(San Francisco, CA) - "Today's
order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) leaves
California electric customers exposed to price gouging and future
electric supply reliability uncertainty," PG&E Corporation said.
"The California wholesale
electric market is broken. And we are extremely disappointed by
the insufficiency of today's FERC order," said PG&E officials.
"The remedies outlined in
the order do not go nearly far enough to provide a solution that
ensures reliability of the state's electric supply and, equally
importantly, provides relief from future price gouging," said PG&E.
PG&E said it is particularly
disappointed that FERC did not call for retroactive price refunds
for California electric customers. The company also said that it
was especially troubled that the Commission shortened the timeframe
for the electric price cap from the end of 2002, until the end of
April 2001, leaving customers exposed during the high demand summer
a season.
The company said that while
it is disappointed by today's FERC action, it will continue to work
to create an effective solution to the state's broken wholesale
electric market that ensures fair prices for customers and maintains
the reliability of the state's electric system.