Bullet

Producers may have dodged a bullet on the windfall profits tax (see Daily GPI, Dec. 3), but majors and independents still are concerned that Congress may revise or strip away existing tax benefits for oil and natural gas to offset revenue losses and narrow the budget deficit.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not going to be the “silver bullet” that people in the natural gas industry once thought it would be, and to ensure that North America gets its share, gas utilities need to commit to longer term supply contracts and the continent’s storage resources need to be developed further, said Spectra Energy Transmission President Martha Wyrsch.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is not going to be the “silver bullet” that people in the natural gas industry once thought it would be, and to ensure that North America gets its share, gas utilities need to commit to longer term supply contracts and the continent’s storage resources need to be developed further, said Spectra Energy Transmission President Martha Wyrsch.

New backstop transmission siting authority given to FERC in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) will not be a “silver bullet” and, if improperly applied, that authority could become “one of the biggest roadblocks that we have to construction” of power lines, Jose Delgado, CEO of American Transmission Co. (ATC), said last Wednesday.

Legislative language that would have given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) greater oversight over wholesale natural gas prices was stricken from a broad amendment on electricity that was unveiled last Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as the full Senate prepared to return to debate on the energy bill this week.

Not surprisingly, the energy industry last week was almost evenly split over the issue of whether FERC should re-impose price caps on short-term capacity-release transportation to the California border, with California regulators, utilities, industrial customers and producers in favor of the action, while interstate gas pipelines, power marketers and independent generators serving the state, and local distribution companies (LDCs) want to stick with the status quo.

Not surprisingly, the energy industry is almost evenly split over the issue of whether FERC should re-impose price caps on short-term capacity-release transactions to the California border, with California regulators, utilities, industrial customers and producers in favor of the action, while interstate gas pipelines, power marketers and independent generators serving the state, and local distribution companies (LDCs) want to stick with the status quo.

California’s financially troubled utilities dodged a bulletearlier this week when the Senate defeated an amendment that wouldhave required them to repay suppliers for all of the power theyreceived as a result of the Department of Energy orders during theDecember-through-February period, even if they go bankrupt.

California, as the nation’s early poster child for energyindustry restructuring, has to bite the bullet and decide if itwants robust retail competition for natural gas and electricity, orwhether it wants to stop where it is now with wholesalecompetition, “declare victory and everyone go home,” said thestate’s top energy regulator, Richard Bilas, an economist andpresident of the California Public Utilities Commission. If itwants retail competition, then the state should consider adoptingsome of the aspects of Georgia’s gas restructuring andPennsylvania’s electricity changes.