As of last Friday, 35 days away from the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission’s August recess and counting….there wasstill no official sign of its promised plan to cure the gas marketof its ills. But rumors abounded that the alleged “gas options”paper has been circulated to pipelines and producers and isundergoing a variety of alterations. There also was one report thatthe plan might not after all see daylight until after the recess.

Reportedly some of the key elements include eliminating therules for 30-day transactions, the ceiling prices on releasedcapacity and pre-arranged transactions. Everything would be postedfor bidding which should establish a market value for capacity.Another element would allow the pipeline to recover the differencebetween the market value of capacity and its rates as transitioncosts which would be flowed through to customers.

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