Wednesday February 7 9:48 PM ET Judge Extends Calif. Power Sales Order

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday extended by one day an order requiring Reliant Energy to continue to supply electricity to California's grid manager after state lawyers argued that failure to do so could lead to more rolling blackouts.

U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrall extended a temporary restraining order against Reliant he issued on Tuesday, just hours before federal orders mandating continued energy sales to the energy-starved state were due to expire.

Damrall's order was extended until 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern) Thursday, at which point he said he would issue a permanent ruling on whether or not generators can be forced to continue supplying power to California despite fears they may not be paid.

The California Independent System Operator (news - web sites) (ISO) had sought Damrall's intervention to force Reliant, Williams Cos., AES and Dynegy, all major independent suppliers to California's energy market, to continue sales beyond the end of the federal orders requiring them to do so.

While Damrall's temporary restraining order applies only to Reliant, the other companies have voluntarily agreed to keep supplying electricity pending final results in the case.

-- pho (owennos@bigfoot.com), February 07, 2001

Answers

Imagine that, a federal judge order Reliant to continue selling power for which they have no assurance they will be paid, to a company already in arrears and on the verge of being bankrupt.

That is no different then seizure. That is a court order that deserves to be ignored. This judge obviously knows nothing of, or choses to ignore, basic contract law. He has no authority here.

-- Tom Flook (tflook@earthlink.net), February 07, 2001.

Or he should be held personally responsible for the payment for those days he's ordered. But that'd never happen.

-- fair use act quotation: for educational and reserach purposes (perry@ofuzzy1.com), February 07, 2001.