Challenge

With shoulder-month natural gas futures prices topping $6 on Monday, it’s clear the bulls are winning the market tug-o-war. But some buyers charge that has happened through a propaganda campaign waged by producers and analysts who have exaggerated the low gas supply situation and the need for demand destruction.

Echoing the concerns cited by Duke Energy earlier, scores of West Coast energy suppliers disputed FERC staff’s view that the California market monitoring rules provide the legal backing for the Commission to issue show-cause orders against them and other sellers, threatening the loss of market-based rate authority and/or alleged ill-gotten profits.

Echoing the concerns cited by Duke Energy earlier, scores of West Coast energy suppliers dispute FERC staff’s view that the California market monitoring rules provide the legal backing for the Commission to issue show-cause orders against them and other sellers, threatening the loss of market-based rate authority and/or alleged ill-gotten profits.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC has rejected a shipper challenge to three FERC orders that allowed Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. to roll in the construction costs of several East Coast expansion projects in its general rate base. The agency orders required all Transco shippers to pay the project construction costs — not just those who would benefit directly from the expansions.

A FERC judge on Tuesday will hear arguments on whether to toss out an agency subpoena that orders El Paso Corp. to furnish documents on its deceptive price reporting activities to California parties to support their claim for refunds.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC has rejected a shipper challenge to three FERC orders that allowed Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. to roll in the construction costs of several East Coast expansion projects in its general rate base. The agency orders required all Transco shippers to pay the project construction costs — not just those who would benefit directly from the expansions.

Bullied by sudden and seldom-seen agreement between private and governmental weather forecasting agencies, natural gas futures spiked higher Wednesday evening and Thursday as traders initiated long positions they had liquidated over the past several weeks. Nymex reopened with a bang at 7 p.m. EST Wednesday evening as prices rebounded more than a dime off Tuesday’s $4.789 close.

The U.S. Supreme Court last Monday declined to hear a recent challenge to a lower court’s ruling affirming that transfers of electric generating facilities between public utilities are not subject to FERC’s review under section 203 of the Federal Power Act (FPA).

“Finding creative ways to make deals happen is a bigger challenge for me than assessing a financial statement,” according to Frank Hilton, vice president and chief credit officer for AEP. “You have to look at other things besides the balance sheet,” Hilton told the audience at the LDC Forum last Tuesday in Chicago.