Legislation prescribing voluntary unbundling of Colorado’s gasdistribution industry has now gone to a state House appropriationscommittee. The sponsor of SB 153, Sen. David T. Owen, said heexpects it to pass with little or no trouble. Unlike legislationthat unbundled Georgia’s gas industry, the Colorado legislationdoes not delve into specifics of unbundling but rather leaves themup to the state Public Utility Commission (PUC).

“Our perspective on the legislation is we’re in favor of it,”said Public Service of Colorado spokesman Mark Salley. “We thinkit’s good. It’s a continuation of a gas deregulation effort lastyear that we supported.” He said he did not know when PublicService would choose to open its system to competition. When askedwhether there was anything about the legislation the company didnot like, Salley said he didn’t know of anything and said the billhas “a reasonable balance.”

However, potentially contentious issues, such as capacityassignment, provider of last resort and whether LDCs should beforced to exit the merchant function, will have to be hammered outby the PUC. One concern that was dealt with in the Senate was aprovision that would allow some municipal utilities to keep frompublic eyes information deemed to be sensitive from a competitivestandpoint. The bill was amended to require a public hearing todetermine which municipal utility records could be closed.Opposition to closing municipality records from public view comesfrom those who say they benefit from tax breaks and low-interestloans at the public’s expense.

The Colorado legislative session closes at the end of May.

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.