Anniversary

On the day before the one-year anniversary of the deadly San Bruno, CA, pipeline rupture and explosion last year, California regulators on Thursday denied Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) request to have future increases in natural gas pipeline operating pressures done by a regulatory staff executive.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week continued to plug away at final rules on the first anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act being signed into law. The agency voted out three final rules aimed at reviewing swaps for mandatory clearing and removing all references to credit agencies in CFTC regulations. Chairman Gary Gensler also assured end-users, who use derivatives to legitimately hedge their commercial risks, that they will not be subject to capital margin requirements.

At the agency’s first meeting following the one-year anniversary of the sweeping Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Tuesday overwhelmingly voted out three final rules aimed at reviewing swaps for mandatory clearing and removing references to credit agencies in CFTC regulations. Chairman Gary Gensler said end-users, which are exempt from clearing swaps, will not have to meet capital margin requirements.

The CEO at the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), Yakout Mansour, announced Tuesday that he plans to retire June 1, the date of the 40th anniversary of the start of his electric industry career. Mansour will leave having led the state grid operator through several long-sought milestones, such as the launch of the CAISO-redesigned market in 2009, Market Redesign Technology Upgrade (MRTU), which struggled for years to get under way. During Mansour’s six years heading the grid operator it has studied and approved $9.5 billion in transmission expansion projects, and concluded that there is now adequate transmission infrastructure in place or being built to support the state’s new renewable energy goal of 33% by 2020. Mansour said he feels that in his tenure he has helped “restore confidence in California’s wholesale energy market” that was badly tattered in the 2000-2001 wholesale energy market meltdown in the West. A CAISO oversight board member, Bob Foster, called Mansour “hugely successful” in lowering power costs and the costs at the grid operator.

On the 10th anniversary of adoption of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s unbundling and opening of its natural gas transmission pipeline and storage system in what has come to be called its Gas Accord, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Thursday approved a 31-party settlement creating Gas Accord IV covering 2008 through 2010.

On the 10th anniversary of adoption of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s (PG&E) unbundling and opening up of its natural gas transmission pipeline and storage system in what has come to be called its Gas Accord, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last Thursday approved a 31-party settlement creating Gas Accord IV covering 2008 through 2010. Separately, the CPUC also approved the utility’s proposed program for retail gas user rebates this winter as rewards for conserving energy in the height of the space heating season.

As the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approached, the energy industry was watching ominous Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was strengthening in the Atlantic Basin Friday night. As of 5 p.m. EDT Friday the National Hurricane Center (NHC) was predicting that Ernesto would become the season’s first hurricane by Monday and could track right into the center of the Gulf of Mexico possibly targeting the Texas or Louisiana coasts.

A large-scale antiterror drill will be carried out in New England about a week after the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, with the Distrigas of Massachusetts’ liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Everett, MA, playing a secondary role.

A large-scale antiterror drill will be carried out in New England about a week after the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, with the Distrigas of Massachusetts’ liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Everett, MA, playing a secondary role.