Jury Trial Date Now Set for Sempra Energy Class Action Lawsuit

Four Years Since Filing, Major Antitrust, Market Manipulation Case Will Be Heard by San Diego Jurors Starting September 2, 2005

More than four years of attempts by Sempra Energy (NYSE:SRE) to dismiss a major $24 billion antitrust class action lawsuit have ended with the setting of September 2, 2005 as a firm trial date by San Diego Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Prager, it was announced by plaintiffs' counsel today.

As a result, Sempra, a Fortune 500 company, will now face a jury relating to charges of conspiracy and market manipulation that precipitated California's energy crisis in 2000 and 2001. Economists have estimated that plaintiffs in the case have suffered $9 billion in damages due to these excessive energy costs in 2000 and 2001. This amount, under California antitrust law, is automatically trebled after credits for payments by other defendants.

"At long last, we have a day of reckoning in our sights," stated Thomas V. Girardi, of Girardi & Keese in Los Angeles, one of the lead plaintiffs' counsel. "For close to five years, Sempra has desperately tried to dismiss, delay or otherwise avoid facing a jury with the details of its egregious behavior that hurt the people of California. In fact, the company's maneuverings have allowed us greater discovery and time to accumulate significantly more evidence of Sempra entities' cartel-like arrangements and collusion.

"Sempra should not - and will not - escape liability for betraying the public trust of all of us living and working in this state," Girardi added.

The legal action, initially filed in December 2000, has been characterized by Sempra's own counsel as "life threatening" with the potential to "put San Diego's largest company out of business." Sempra's net worth was $3.9 billion at December 31, 2003.

The lawsuit claims that Sempra, a Fortune 500 company, and two owned companies, Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), conspired with El Paso Natural Gas Corp to prevent competition for cheaper and more plentiful Canadian natural gas and to protect their respective market dominance over the supply and transportation of natural gas both into and within California, reaping enormous profits at the expense of California consumers and businesses.

The evidence against Sempra presented by the plaintiffs includes details of a clandestine meeting at a Phoenix, Arizona Embassy Suites hotel involving 11 senior executives from SoCalGas, SDG&E and El Paso in September 1996. Plaintiffs will offer evidence that, without any legal counsel present, the executives unlawfully agreed they would cooperate rather than compete with each other in supplying and delivering natural gas - resulting in an artificially constrained supply of natural gas and escalating prices to Californians of gas and ultimately electricity produced from natural gas.

El Paso, the largest natural gas pipeline company in the U.S., previously settled the antitrust conspiracy charges against it in December 2003, agreeing to pay $1.7 billion for the benefit of 13 million Californians.

Plaintiffs in the class action include the People of the State of California; the City and County of Los Angeles; San Bernardino County; the cities of Long Beach, Burbank, Glendale, Culver City, Vernon and Upland; Continental Forge Company; and numerous other companies and individuals. The case also includes a class of more than 13 million California consumers who paid excessive gas and electric bills.

Plaintiffs' counsel in addition to Girardi include lead counsel Pierce O'Donnell of O'Donnell & Shaeffer LLP in Los Angeles; Walter Lack of Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack; Lance Astrella of Astrella & Rice P.C.; Brad Baker of Baker, Burton & Lundy, P.C.; M. Brian McMahon; Michael J. Ponce; Douglas A. Stacey; J. Tynan Kelly; Maxwell Blecher of Blecher & Collins, P.C.; Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard Delgadillo; Long Beach City Attorney Robert F. Shannon; and Los Angeles County Counsel Lloyd W. Pellman.

Contacts

for Continental Forge Company et al
Craig A. Parsons, (310) 472-7632
(310) 200-4310