The U.S. Senate amended the Department of the Interior’sappropriations bill to include a provision for a two million barrelheating oil reserve in the Northeast. The House already hasauthorized creation of a permanent reserve but has not appropriatedfunds. A conference committee now will merge the two measures. Lastweek, the president ordered the Department of Energy to establish atemporary home heating oil reserve in time for use this winter.This week, DOE plans to advertise for bids to fill that stockpile.It intends to sell oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve inLouisiana in exchange for heating oil and storage capacity in theNortheast.

Blockbuster Inc. and Enron Broadband Services announced a20-year, exclusive agreement to deliver a Blockbuster entertainmentservice, initially featuring movies on-demand, via the EnronIntelligent Network. They plan to introduce the entertainmenton-demand service in multiple U.S. cities by year-end.

Independent electric generating company PSEG Power LLC hasannounced it will build a new, two unit, 1,186 MW natural gas-firedplant in Linden, NJ. The $590 million project will replace threeexisting oil-fired steam units at the Linden Generating Station,retiring 436 MW of capacity upon completion. The original oil-firedsteam units built in 1956 will be replaced with four GE 7FAgas-fired combustion turbines. The project is expected to be up andrunning by May, 2003.

Calpine has agreed to build its fourth power plant thatinterconnects with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Theproposed natural gas-fired Haywood Energy Center is estimated tocost $430 million. It will be located in Haywood County, TN. Thefacility will generate 770 MW, with the option of adding anadditional 120 MW during peak season. Construction is slated tobegin in mid-2002 with commercial operation scheduled for 2004. TheHaywood Energy Center will push Calpine’s generation in the TVARegion to approximately 2,900 MW.

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