Frontlines

The Great Gas Grab

 

 

California sued El Paso for gaming the pipeline. But the blame may lie to the East.

To hear one side tell it, it's the "Great California Gas Grab"-a "thinly disguised effort" to steal pipeline capacity from Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and to give it back to California, where it sells at a premium.

Nor does the other side mince words. It claims that gas customers in California "have been suffering, and continue to suffer, ever-increasing financial harm on a daily basis."

Caught in the middle is El Paso Natural Gas, which has taken much of the blame for gas price spikes seen last year in California. Yet, the real fault may lie elsewhere.