California-based clean electric transportation and storage technologies company ECOtality Inc. (ECTY: Quote) said Friday it filed legal documents with the state's First District Court of Appeal seeking to halt implementation of an agreement between the California Public Utilities Commission and New Jersey-based company NRG Energy Inc. (NRG: Quote).
The company alleges that the agreement, which was intended to settle NRG's role in overcharging California energy ratepayers $940 million during the 2000-2001 energy crisis, instead rewards NRG by requiring only that the company spend $102.5 million on its own the electric vehicle charging station, or EVCS business.
Secondly, the company alleges the California Public Utilities Commission intervened outside of its authority in the private marketplace by endorsing one of multiple competitors, thereby handing the company a monopoly over the nascent market in California.
ECOtality CEO Jonathan Read said, "This is an illegal giveaway, negotiated without public input, that will not only impede the development of the electric vehicle market in California and ultimately cost consumers more - but it also denies California rate-payers any refunds from the nearly $1 billion in overcharging that occurred during the energy crisis."
NRG is the successor entity to Dynegy Power Marketing, the firm blamed by the California Public Utilities Commission for $940 million in price-gouging from 2000-2001. The Commission now wishes to settle those energy crisis-related claims.
The agreement requires only a $20 million payment to the California Public Utilities Commission (which amounts to roughly 2 percent of the overcharges) and that NRG invest $102.5 million in establishing 1,200 electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state. NRG already invests in the EVCS industry through its subsidiary, eVgo.
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by RTT Staff Writer
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