Generators deny gouging.
The state report is the most accusatory of a number of studies undertaken to determine why wholesale electricity prices have soared in California since last summer, throwing the state's biggest utilities into financial crisis and dashing hopes for lower consumer rates under deregulation. The study also provides new ammunition to members of California's congressional delegation, who have unsuccessfully been pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to impose price ceilings on wholesale electricity costs. Generators defended their operating practices and rejected the allegation that they had raked in unfairly large profits in December and January. We have nothing to hide. Gary Ackerman, executive direcor of the Western Power Trading Forum, said the Cal-ISO report does not account for less tangible factors that tend to drive up prices, such as political and financial uncertainties.