There were 2 cases filed by Bustamente.

May 2 2001
https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2001/04/30/daily...

> California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante today filed suit against five out of state power generators, accusing them of price fixing.

> Named as defendants are Dynegy, Inc.; Duke Energy; Mirant, Inc.; Reliant Energy Inc., and Williams Energy Services.

> The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, was joined by Assemblywoman Barbara Matthews, D-Tracy. Both entered the suit as private citizens.

Nov 26 2002
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1037917427814504588,

> A class-action lawsuit was filed by California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante against McGraw-Hill and a number of energy companies for allegedly conspiring to inflate natural gas and electricity prices in the California by publishing false natural gas prices. The suit was brought by Mr. Bustamante as a ratepayer and on behalf of the general public.

The initial 2002 case was dismissed:

> On November 20, 2002, California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante (“Bustamante”) filed a claim against several sellers and marketers of natural gas and gas price indices publishers in ... After the court granted a motion to dismiss filed by defendants, Bustamante filed an amended complaint on August 13, 2003 ..,

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1010775/000110465905...

Hard to believe that "the biggest single threat" to Lay in 2003 (during the Enron bankruptcy proceedings and criminal investigations) was one of these Bustamante lawsuits (which did not include Lay or Enron as defendants) that the court initially agreed to dismiss.

> Arnold then dropped the $9 billion lawsuit once in office, I think the eventual settlement was only a few hundred million.

This is the part that needs a source ...

These lawsuits were filed by Bustamante as a private citizen while he was lieutenant governor, so please also explain the mechanics of the governor of California dropping a lawsuit filed by a private individual in the LA Superior Court.

I don't doubt that Bustamente's cases settled for millions rather than billions, but I would tend to attribute that to Bustamente overstating the strength of the cases and potential settlements for political purposes while campaigning for lieutenant governor in 2002 and for governor in 2003 rather than Schwarzenegger somehow intervening in the California judicial system, and there being no shortage of lawsuits against these companies and money preferentially going to claims from entities with stronger cases (i.e. not attempted class action lawsuits by private individuals)

> Bustamante’s lawyers have agreed in principal to the deal, saying they would accept a settlement of $20 million -- though that is a fraction of the money, perhaps $1 billion or more, Bustamante hoped to recover when he filed the case on behalf of overcharged California consumers.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-nov-21-me-busta...

See https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/comm-respon... and https://www.ferc.gov/industries-data/electric/general-inform... for details on some of the litigation that actually resulted in refunds from some of these energy companies ($4.5 billion by 2005, and the cases continued long after that - maybe still going)