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Although none of the major merchant generators in Californiawill talk about pulling back from the nation’s largest electricitymarket, they are not happy with some of the proposals that haverecently landed in the federal regulators’ lap advocating pricecaps and cost-based ratemaking, at least for interim periods.Several generators noted this week they are watching the situationclosely and intend to be heard at the federal level as well asamong the California energy policymakers.

Florida’s onerous restrictions on new power plant construction aren’t holding back Calpine Corp. The company announced it has signed a contract to supply power from a new 540 MW combined cycle plant to Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative.

Florida’s onerous restrictions on new power plant constructionaren’t holding back Calpine Corp. The company announced it hassigned a contract to supply power from a new 540 MW combined cycleplant to Tampa-based Seminole Electric Cooperative.

Dallas Cowboy fans are not alone. It has been a tough month ofSundays for natural gas bear traders as they have been forced towatch Friday’s downward price momentum gradually lose steam duringSunday evening Access trading, setting the stage for a pricerecovery when the regular open-outcry session re-opens Monday.

State-by-state regulation is holding back the development of amore competitive U.S. energy economy while other countries alreadyare benefiting from deregulation — something that regulators needto realize, the CEO of UtiliCorp United told energy executivesyesterday.

After twice failing to bust through stubborn resistance at$4.48, natural gas futures gave back early session advancesyesterday to finish just about unchanged on the day. A slim loss inthe September contract was more than offset by modest advances inthe out months. While September finished 0.7 cents lower at $4.406,the 12-month strip was up 2.6 cents at $4.099.

Renowned hurricane soothsayer Dr. William Gray and his team atColorado State University have scaled back their forecast for thehurricane season but still expect the season to be more active thanaverage. Seven rather than eight hurricanes are expected now andonly three of them are expected to be intense rather than the fourexpected in the group’s prior forecast on June 7. In round numbers,the August forecast is for three named storms, two hurricanes, andone intense or major hurricane.

A number of top energy executives lined up last week to lendtheir support to House Commerce Committee Chairman Thomas J.Bliley’s (R-VA) draft proposal that would give FERC solejurisdiction over all interstate transmission in the United States- including facilities used in bundled retail transactions, as wellas the interstate facilities operated by Bonneville PowerAdministration, the Tennessee Valley Authority, cooperatives,municipals and utilities in Texas.

FERC has sent Dominion Resources and its merged partner,Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG), back to the drawing board to expandthe scope of the pipeline marketing affiliate rule to apply to allenergy affiliates within their corporate family.