No smoking gun in natural-gas cost probe By Jim Sanders Bee Capitol Bureau (Published April 23, 2001)  It strikes at the heart of an energy crisis that has caused  multibillion-dollar losses and could plunge California's economy into a  tailspin: Did private companies manipulate markets to get rich off consumers'  pain?
An Assembly oversight committee spent hours last week grilling officials of  El Paso Natural Gas Co. and an affiliate, El Paso Merchant Energy, companies  that were accused by state regulators of anti-competitive practices that  helped send gas prices soaring.
Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the hearing  convinced him that El Paso exercised "market power" -- undue influence over

El Paso Hearings at PUC Legislature
No smoking gun in natural-gas cost probe By Jim Sanders Bee Capitol Bureau (Published April <NUMBER>, <NUMBER>) It strikes at the heart of an energy crisis that has caused multibillion-dollar losses and could plunge California's economy into a tailspin: Did private companies manipulate markets to get rich off consumers' pain?
An Assembly oversight committee spent hours last week grilling officials of El Paso Natural Gas Co. and an affiliate, El Paso Merchant Energy, companies that were accused by state regulators of anti-competitive practices that helped send gas prices soaring.
Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said the hearing convinced him that El Paso exercised "market power" -- undue influence over
multibillion dollar losses power undue influence competitive practices cost probe bureau published assembly oversight paso natural gas energy companies accused steinberg