Sempra Fails to Block Subpoenas

Sempra Energy, owner of the largest U.S. natural gas utility, lost a bid to block subpoenas from California regulators investigating whether the company manipulated energy prices during the state’s power crisis.

U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney on Tuesday refused to grant San Diego-based Sempra an injunction to halt the subpoenas, saying federal courts shouldn’t interfere with a state investigation. The state Public Utilities Commission is reviewing whether Sempra played a role in an increase in gas prices at the California-Nevada border in 2000 and 2001.

The commission “proceedings at issue implicate important state interests,” Chesney wrote in her ruling in San Francisco. Sempra’s energy-trading unit “is unquestionably a party to the state discovery proceedings it is seeking to enjoin.”

Sempra has denied wrongdoing and has said higher gas prices were caused by unprecedented demand and supply reductions because of an explosion on a key interstate pipeline.