Pipeline dispute clouds Southwest Gas rate case
by Ryan Randazzo | The Republic
As Southwest Gas Corp. prepares to increase rates this summer, the company remains locked in a years-long legal battle with a large business customer suing to recover millions in special fees it claims were intended for a pipeline that never was built.
Ethanol producer Pinal Energy asserts it has paid approximately $8 million to Southwest Gas to build a pipeline to serve its plant in the city of Maricopa. But Southwest has been able to serve the facility with existing infrastructure, and Pinal Energy filed suit in Superior Court in 2012 to get its money back.
According to the court documents, Pinal Energy in 2005 commissioned a study to build its own pipeline to connect to a nearby El Paso Natural Gas line, for a fuel supply to boil and dry the grains used to make ethanol.