Breathe

The oil and natural gas industry can breathe easier — at least for the time being — now that the joint House-Senate super committee has conceded defeat in reaching a bipartisan agreement to cut the federal deficit.

The oil and natural gas industry can breathe easier — at least for the time being — now that the joint House-Senate super committee has conceded defeat in reaching a bipartisan agreement to cut the federal deficit.

Taking their case to the court of public opinion on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento, California’s leading utility consumer group, TURN (The Utility Reform Network) scheduled a rally for a “Sane Energy Future for California” Wednesday. The event brought together small community and business organizations with Fabian Nunez, the speaker of the state Assembly and author of the electric industry reform bill (AB 2006) that was set for a key legislative committee vote.

In an attempt to breathe new life into the languishing energy bill, Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee announced on Monday a new strategy in which he plans to move the $13 billion tax portion of the measure through the Senate on a separate track ahead of the rest of the legislation.

The Bush administration is considering plans that would ease environmental restrictions on upgraded existing coal-fired power plants and potentially force the delay or cancellation of a significant amount of new gas-fired power generation. Some industry observers estimate the potential impact at about 40,000 MW of generation capacity or roughly about 8 Bcf/d of gas demand.

Rocky Mountains ski resort operators were starting to breathe alittle easier Tuesday. After many had missed traditional openingdates of Thanksgiving Day weekend or earlier, they welcomed asnowstorm that either was arriving or on its way. For much the samereason, Rockies/Pacific Northwest and Southwest points constitutedthe only region seeing meaningful price gains on either side of anickel Tuesday. The rest of the cash market was a sea of flatnessthat, unlike Monday, leaned slightly to the downside instead of theupside.