Appropriate

FERC Friday issued a favorable a final environmental nod for Guardian Pipeline LLC’s expansion and extension project in Illinois and Wisconsin.

How appropriate! On the first official day of what is expected to be an especially active 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced formation of the year’s second named storm in the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Friday afternoon. The news came far too late to affect the spot market, where all points fell Friday except for a small gain at Westcoast Station 2. Several Rockies points led the general declines with dollar-plus plunges.

With forecasts cropping up of weather more appropriate for January than the mild conditions that have dominated much of the East so far this winter, prices staged a double-digit rally at all points Monday.

Sens. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) last Wednesday asked FERC Chairman Patrick Wood to reopen FERC’s investigation into Enron’s trading practices during the 2000-2001 Western energy crisis and to explain how the agency will respond to new evidence of “extensive and deliberate” trading manipulations, particularly in the context of disputed energy cost refunds and long term energy contracts to which Enron was a party.

FERC should act to improve price reporting and transparency in the natural gas market by supporting appropriate standards for energy companies to follow when reporting trade data to publishers and pledging not to penalize companies that follow those standards, Platts said in a filing Friday (AD03-7-001).

The National Energy Board is seeking feedback from interested parties on a discussion paper outlining its proposed Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) program. The document describes options for settling disputes as an addition to the board’s traditional regulatory process. The board is welcoming the public’s input, comments and questions on all aspects of the design of the program and the contents of the ADR document. Comments received by Nov. 5 will assist in developing program guidelines. The ADR discussion paper are available on the board’s web site at www.neb-one.gc.ca under “What’s New.”

The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is scheduled to release a new study Tuesday that documents the adverse impacts of electric and natural gas market restructuring on some residential consumers. The five-state study is the first product of an on-going project to examine the impacts of restructuring on residential consumers, particularly low- and moderate-income households.

FERC last Wednesday issued an order directing Exelon Corp. and affiliates PECO Energy Co., Exelon Generation Co. LLC and Power Team to show cause whether they violated a key section of the Federal Power Act (FPA) and standards of conduct in FERC regulations by operating PECO’s transmission system in an unduly preferential manner or sharing non-public information related to the timing and location of maintenance outages.

While it might think the April Fool’s date is appropriate forNew York to impose a new energy tax, the National Energy MarketersAssociation (NEM) still opposes the plan. “On April 1, 2000, NewYork will impose a new tax on natural gas and electricitytransportation. This new tax will severely limit furtherdevelopment of energy competition,” said NEM President CraigGoodman.