Blame

Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling last week accused the government of trying to “rewrite history” and pin the blame for the company’s collapse on “innocent people.” Skilling, who spent four days on the witness stand defending himself, said he is “absolutely innocent” of the 28 criminal charges against him and will fight to prove his innocence “until the day I die.”

Hurricance Ivan’s continuing impact on Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and production was at least partly to blame for the huge run up in natural gas prices last week. Crude oil futures shot to a record high of $50.47/bbl on Tuesday in response to unrest in Nigeria, the largest African oil-producing country, and that along with expectations of a lengthy supply outage in the Gulf from hurricane damage sent November gas futures soaring to a high of $7.23 on Wednesday.

Attempting to place at least part of the blame for the Enron fiasco at the door of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a report and hearing by Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (CT) Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs blasted the agency for “a shocking absence of regulatory vigilance.”

Blame it on Enron Corp.’s collapse or commodity prices that have dropped from the heavens, but whatever the reason, utility executives are rethinking their once lofty notions of the merchant energy side of the business and instead have begun to turn more attention to their core generation businesses — a strategy change that has occurred in just one year.

Blame it on Enron Corp.’s collapse or commodity prices that have dropped from the heavens, but whatever the reason, utility executives are rethinking their once lofty notions of the merchant energy side of the business and instead have begun to turn more attention to their core generation businesses — a strategy change that has occurred in just one year.

In a blistering comeback to Enron Corp.’s lawsuit against its former merger partner, Dynegy Inc. attorneys last week filed a 51-page response in U.S. Southern District Bankruptcy Court of New York to answer charges that Dynegy had been responsible for Enron’s downfall.

In a blistering comeback to Enron Corp.’s lawsuit against its former merger partner, Dynegy Inc. attorneys Monday filed a 51-page response in U.S. Southern District Bankruptcy Court of New York to answer charges that Dynegy had been responsible for Enron’s downfall.

Anadarko CEO Robert J. Allison, speaking at last week’s Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference, said he believes that in the long term, natural gas prices will stabilize in the $4-$6 Mcf range, although he noted that “$3 is still a pretty darn good gas price” in the overall scheme of things.

Retail marketers have been dropping like flies in Georgia, andbilling problems have been mainly to blame. As the Georgia PublicService Commission was putting the finishing touches on a notice ofproposed rulemaking (NOPR) last week that would punish retailmarketers for not getting accurate bills out on time, anothermarketer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection apparentlyrelated to billing problems in the Atlanta gas market.