of the company's stock price between 1992 and early 1994. El Paso was pinning its long-term hopes on the rapidly expanding Mexican market, to which it had unsurpassed access. It was also engaged in an ambitious effort to vastly increase its access to the northern California natural gas market. Coastal acquisition, legal troubles, and proxy fight In 2001, El Paso bought Oscar Wyatt's Coastal Corporation, a diversified energy company. It owned oil refineries, gas stations, and marketed oil, natural gas, and electricity. On June 26 2003, El Paso agreed to pay $1.45 billion to settle the price gouging case. In October 2011, Kinder Morgan acquired El Paso Corp. in a $21.1 billion deal. Criticism Tax avoidance In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized El Paso for spending $2.94 million on lobbying and not paying income taxes during 2008-2010, instead getting $41 million in income tax rebates, despite making a profit of $4.1 billion and increasing executive pay by 47%. Price fixing On 27 September 2002, the shares of the El Paso Corporation plunged after an administrative law judge at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled that the company helped illegally drive energy prices to record highs in California between 2000 and 2001 by manipulating gas supplies. El Paso gas trader Todd Geiger was prosecuted by the FERC for falsely making up 48 gas trades. El Paso is now out of the energy trading business. Notes and references External links El Paso Corporation website Natural gas companies of the United States Petroleum in Texas Defunct companies based in Texas Companies based in El Paso, Texas Companies based in Houston Non-renewable resource companies established in 1928 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 2012 1928 establishments in Texas 2012 disestablishments in Texas Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange