Cancels

After chopping its power marketing staff in half this summer (see Power Market Today, June 24), Boise-based IDACORP Inc. on Tuesday decided to throw in the towel on natural gas marketing. The company also said it will terminate efforts to pursue a midstream natural gas development business. It will exit natural gas trading operations by the end of the first quarter of 2003, affecting a small Houston staff.

Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay canceled his much-awaited appearances before Senate and House subcommittees this week in the wake of a blistering internal company report that said Lay, as well as other senior management officials, the board of directors and the company’s outside auditor, contributed to the financial collapse of the once-powerful energy trader last fall. Both congressional panels are now considering issuing subpoenas for Lay to testify at a later date.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) last week discontinued any further consideration by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee of major energy legislation for the rest of the session, reportedly after it became clear that Republicans on the committee had enough votes to push through a bill that would call for the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

At the direct urging of Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD), Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) did a complete about-face Tuesday and suspended formal mark-ups of comprehensive energy legislation and a national energy security bill for this session of Congress, in favor of a stripped down set of only the most critical issues.