The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Wednesday approved the proposed Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2006, reauthorizing the current pipeline safety law which was set to expire this year. The bill was introduced by committee Chairman Don Young, R-AK and Rep. Thomas Petri, R-WI. The American Gas Association said it was pleased the bill included a focus on prevention of excavation damage to pipelines, the single largest cause of incidents on the natural gas distribution system. The bill encourages stronger state damage prevention programs through financial incentives and increases penalties for failing to use the one-call system or failure to mark pipelines. The Senate still must act on the bill.

The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved the stock acquisition and merger of Corning Natural Gas Corp. and C&T Enterprises Inc., with certain conditions. Under terms of the merger, Corning, which will become a C&T subsidiary, will freeze delivery rates for gas service at the current level through September 2009, refund to customers $1.4 million incurred in excess gas costs, and nearly double capital investment in the gas system over the next five years. All of the conditions were approved by the PSC in May (see Daily GPI, May 18). The merger approval requires Corning to appoint one or more local citizens to the new board of directors, to require the current president and vice president resign when the merger closes, and to now allow so-called “golden parachutes” be placed into rates. All nonmanagement employees also have to be retained for at least a year, and all collective bargaining agreements will be honored. A copy of the PSC written decision in Case 06-G-0569 will be available at www.dps.state.ny.us in the Documents section.

The New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced Wednesday that it will offer additional inter-commodity spread functionality on CME Globex, beginning on August 6 for trade date August 7. Nymex said it will offer spread trading for its full-sized, physically delivered contracts on CME Globex, before and after the close of the Nymex trading floor. These spreads will include RBOB gasoline vs. crude oil; gasoline vs. crude oil; heating oil vs. crude oil; gasoline vs. RBOB gasoline; RBOB gasoline vs. heating oil; and gasoline vs. heating oil. Nymex will also introduce spreads between the financial and physical futures contracts for trading during regular CME Globex hours, Monday through Friday 6:00 PM until 5:15 PM ET (Monday’s trading session begins at 6:00 PM Sunday evening). These spreads include: WTI financial vs. crude oil futures; RBOB financial vs. RBOB gasoline futures; heating oil financial vs. heating oil futures; natural gas (last day) financial vs. natural gas futures; and natural gas penultimate financial vs. natural gas futures. The exchange reported that the spreads will be charged the normal rates for each of the underlying legs. The spreads will be listed for all months corresponding with the underlying products.

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