Sen. Charles Schumer will meet Wednesday with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph Kelliher to press for a more thorough and public investigation of an alleged energy trading scam that allowed New York energy providers to reap huge profits at the expense of consumers, Schumer said Thursday.

Sen. Charles Schumer will meet Wednesday with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph Kelliher to press for a more thorough and public investigation of an alleged energy trading scam that allowed New York energy providers to reap huge profits at the expense of consumers, Schumer said Thursday.
“We must get to the bottom of this greedy scheme,” Schumer said in a statement. “New Yorkers may have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars because of a rogue energy trading scheme, and there are a mess of questions left unanswered.”
In a July 21 filing with FERC, the New York State Independent System Operator reported at least one market participant scheduled circuitous and inefficient routes for transmission between states in order to evade fees, Schumer said.
NYISO has not determined the costs associated with the practices, but some estimates say the cost to consumers could be as much as $125 million in April and May, and as much as $240 million to $290 million overall, Schumer said.
Schumer last month called for a full investigation into the alleged scheme.

(c) 2008 Rochester Business Journal. Obtain permission to
reprint this article.