By Mark Chediak | Bloomberg
California Governor Gavin Newsom called for federal energy regulators to investigate a recent hike in natural gas prices that has resulted in sky-high utility bills.
Newsom, a Democrat, asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in a letter to look into whether market manipulation, anticompetitive behavior or other activities have driven up the cost of gas in the US West, according to a statement Monday.
The call for a probe comes after the wholesale price of natural gas in Southern California soared to more than nine times that of US natural gas benchmark futures in December, prompting California utilities to warn of shockingly high bills. Several