Bowing

Bowing to local Native American concerns, Denver-based Anschutz Exploration Corp. halted its environmental assessment of possible oil/gas drilling in the Red Blanket Butte area northwest of Browning, MT, in the face of possibly disturbing cultural resources associated with the Blackfeet Tribe.

Bowing to pressure from customers, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) decided Monday to give in to individual customers who insist that they cannot tolerate — for health or other reasons — smart meters, recommending to state regulators that a proposed opt-out provision be expanded to include use of analog meters.

The market appeared to be bowing a bit lower than before Friday in acknowledgment of the mostly moderate weather fundamentals that it had largely been defying in the previous two weeks. Even a 6.7-cent gain a day earlier by October futures in the face of an obviously bearish storage injection report failed to prevent a modest majority of points from seeing small declines for the weekend.

If so much coal-fired power generation hadn’t been bowing out to make room for gas-fired plants so far this year, the current gas supply glut would be a lot worse, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. They conceded in a research note Tuesday that coal-fired generation displacement has been much greater than they had thought it would be.

Bowing in part to pressure from Connecticut’s governor, attorney general, other state officials and congressional delegation, FERC last Thursday imposed more than 80 environmental, security and safety conditions in its order approving Broadwater Energy LLC’s controversial floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and associated pipeline to be located in Long Island Sound.

Bowing in part to pressure from Connecticut’s governor, attorney general, other state officials and congressional delegation, FERC on Thursday imposed more than 80 environmental, security and safety conditions in its order approving Broadwater Energy LLC’s controversial floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and associated pipeline to be located in Long Island Sound.

Bowing to unrelenting upward pressure on wholesale natural gas prices, the Oregon Public Utility Commission Thursday approved sizable retail rate increases for the state’s three major private-sector natural gas utilities, ranging from 13.5% to 26.8%.

FERC announced last Wednesday it was launching a broad-based review of its information-collection activities to determine what additional data it will need to bolster its oversight and monitoring of the electricity and natural gas industries. The effort in part is a response to unfavorable General Accounting Office (GAO) reports last year and in 2002, which found the Commission’s oversight and enforcement record to be lax.

FERC said Wednesday it is launching a broad-based review of its information-collection activities to determine what additional data it will need to bolster its oversight and monitoring of the electricity and natural gas industries. The effort is in part a response to unfavorable General Accounting Office (GAO) reports last year and in 2002, which found the Commission’s oversight and enforcement record to be lax.