Final payment made in $34 million settlement

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 | 11:03 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The final payment has been received in a $34 million settlement by El Paso Corp. in favor of natural gas customers in Southern Nevada, state Consumer Advocate Adriana Escobar Chanos said Monday.

Escobar Chanos said $8.5 million went to Southwest Gas, $10 million to Nevada Power Co. and $15.5 million was distributed to large commercial customers such as hotels and industries.

The settlement resolved a suit filed late last year in Clark County against several energy companies accusing them of conspiring to fix natural gas prices. It said the companies engaged in a conspiracy to manipulate the supply of natural gas in Southern Nevada, causing price spikes for both natural gas and electricity.

Escobar Chanos said, "Distribution of funds to Southern Nevada's ratepayers will be in the form of a credit to the deferred energy account balances of Southern Nevada utilities."

"This method is administratively efficient since it does not require the issuance of thousands of individual checks and crediting the deferred energy balances reduces the ongoing carrying costs of these accounts, resulting in an even greater return to Nevada's electricity and natural gas ratepayers," she said.