Bills

Columbia Gas of Ohio reported on Wednesday that its customers will see “significantly lower” natural gas prices on their August bills, reflecting the nationwide decrease in gas prices over the past few months. The company said that beginning in August it will reduce its gas cost from 87 cents to 60 cents per 100 cubic feet, representing a drop of about 32%.

Four House committees passed major energy bills last week that, among other things, would open the door to drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), provide producers $8 billion in tax breaks and incentives, and suspend royalties on oil and natural gas production in deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico up to certain limits. The measures are expected to rendezvous in late July in a comprehensive piece of legislation to be voted on by the full House.

House Republican energy leaders have deep-sixed their proposed legislation to provide emergency relief to California and other western energy markets, insisting that Democrats and Republicans are too far apart on the issue of whether price limits on wholesale power should be included.

Two certainties prevailed in California’s blighted energy landscape Thursday: wholesale power bills are getting bigger and state regulators are trying harder to salvage Gov. Gray Davis’ deal with Southern California Edison Co. But in the state legislature from which the ultimate solutions must come there was growing skepticism, despite a series of meetings with the governor earlier in the week.

As soaring December bills for natural gas use hit the home frontin Illinois last week, city and state officials opened a broadinvestigation into the causes of skyrocketing prices and madeattempts to increase assistance to low-income households.

With December natural gas usage bills hitting extraordinarilyhard in Illinois this year, city and state legislators have set outin search of clues as to why gas prices are through the roof.Spurred by the urgings of Gov. George H. Ryan and variouslegislators, the Illinois Commerce Commission voted 5-0 to open aninvestigation into this winter’s natural gas price spikes. The ICCalso directed its staff to put together its final report within 60to 120 days (see Daily GPI, Jan. 10).

As the December bills for natural gas use hit the home front,city and state officials in Illinois, one of the hardest hit lastmonth, weatherwise, reacted with measures to increase low incomeassistance and investigate the cause of the high prices.

The legislative architect of California’s 1996 precedent-settingelectric industry restructuring law Monday proposed a $2 billionreserve be carved out of the state’s next fiscal budget to fund astate effort to buy or build new generation plants. Theannouncement came at the same time the state energy commission,which approves all new power plants of 50 MW or larger, released alegislatively mandated report that concludes the state’s generationresources are adequate, and temporary peaking plants are not neededfor the upcoming summer.

Separate but closely linked California legislative proposals toprovide consumer electricity rate relief and accelerated powerplant siting/energy efficiency programs were signed into lawWednesday by Gov. Gray Davis, who used the occasion to list 11separate previous electricity-related actions he or hisadministration have taken since June 14 immediately following thefirst controlled rolling brownouts in the San Francisco Bay Areasince World War II.