Davis asks for probe of 'exorbitant' hike in natural gas prices ASSOCIATED PRESS December 15, 2000

SACRAMENTO – Gov. Gray Davis asked Friday for an investigation to determine if "exorbitant" increases in natural gas prices were the result of illegal anticompetitive practices.

"Current spot market prices are neither competitive nor affordable," Davis said in a letter to Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "They threaten key sectors of California's economy."

He asked Lockyer to determine if "exorbitant increases in this vital service over the past year are the result of activities that violate any state or federal laws."

Sandy Michioku, a spokeswoman for Lockyer, said the attorney general's office was already looking at "natural gas issues" as part an investigation of electricity price increases that began last August.

"We will be interested in seeing if there is any additional information the governor's office has," she said. "We will review the letter when we see it."

Roger Buehrer, a spokesman for Southwest Gas Corp., a Las Vegas-based natural gas distribution company that sells to residential customers in the Victorville and Lake Tahoe areas of California, said gas prices have been "going through the roof."

"We have seen prices go up 200 to 250 percent in the last year or more," he said.

He said his understanding was that prices were being driven upward by increased demand and decisions in the mid-1990s to shut down some natural gas wells because of a steep dip in prices.

"It takes six months to 18 months to get those wells back in production," he said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20001215-1610-gasprices.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), December 16, 2000