The Clinton administration has said it will order out-of-state natural gas suppliers to sell fuel to cash-strapped PG&E Corp so it can continue to provide electricity for California homes and businesses that have already been hit with blackouts.
The action, which invoked a 1978 federal law to help California deal with its worsening power crisis, came on the final full day of the Clinton administration.
California Governor Mr Gray Davis, a Democrat, asked for the federal order last weekend, before the state was hit with two days of rolling blackouts and a widening power crisis.
"The president has directed me to initiate the order," U.S. Energy Secretary Mr Bill Richardson told reporters at Department of Energy headquarters. "There will be enforcement action if the order is not carried out."
The order was to be signed later in the day, and would extend through midnight on Tuesday, Mr Richardson said.
Yesterday, PG&E said its deteriorating credit rating could force it to drain all its natural gas in storage by early February because suppliers have balked at providing more gas.
The Clinton administration has also tried to help ease the California crisis with a series of week-long orders that force out-of-state power generators to sell extra electricity to the state's two biggest utilities.
Reuters