ENERGY

Power Producers Appeal Renewable-Energy Ruling: The Independent Energy Producers, a Sacramento-based trade group representing non-utility electricity generators, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a rehearing of its recent ruling questioning the legality of a state-mandated sale of electricity. The independents--including users of wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources--won billions of dollars’ worth of power contracts with the state’s biggest utilities in an auction set up by the California Public Utilities Commission more than five years ago. Southern California Edison Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. later appealed the results to the federal commission, which found that the auction appeared to violate federal laws.