California Governor Gavin Newsom has urged federal energy regulators to look into how the recent surge in natural gas prices has resulted in very high utility bills.
Democrat Newsom wrote a letter asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate whether market manipulation, anti-competitive behavior, or other activities are driving up gas prices in the western United States, according to a statement Monday. rice field.
The call for an inquiry saw wholesale prices for Southern California’s natural gas rise more than nine times his December benchmark U.S. natural gas futures prices, prompting California utilities to warn of staggeringly high rates. It is a result of what you have done. Several factors contributed to the higher price, including colder-than-normal weather, reduced pipeline capacity due to maintenance work, and lower gas storage levels in the western United States.
PG&E and Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co., two of the state’s biggest gas utilities, have said they back Newsom’s call for an investigation. The utilities claimed that they do not set the price of gas and that its cost is directly passed on to customers.
Tuesday’s session will be held by state energy regulators to discuss the reasons for and effects of the increased gas prices. State regulators voted last week to expedite the distribution of credits worth between $90 and $120 to assist in offset rising utility costs.
According to Matt Baker, the director of the Public Advocates Office, a branch of the California Public Utilities Commission, “now is the moment to discover the sources of the shockingly high gas bills that are hurting millions of Californians.” “We need to know more about whether there has been any profiteering or market manipulation,”
