Comes

William Massey is no longer a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Congress officially adjourned for the year on Tuesday without the White House signaling its intent to re-nominate Massey for a third term.

Projecting natural gas wellhead prices, and basically anything else concerning natural gas, hasn’t been easy for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In fact, forecasting consumption, production and prices for just about any other energy commodity has been easier.

Projecting natural gas wellhead prices, and basically anything else concerning natural gas, hasn’t been easy for the Energy Information Administration (EIA). In fact, forecasting consumption, production and prices for just about any other energy commodity has been easier.

Like a weary traveller who comes home to gracefully pass on, the November contract moved quietly sideways and lower in expiration-day trading Wednesday as traders contemplated a market that had fallen perilously close to new one-year prompt-month lows after having soared during the month of October.

The downhill slope for late-April swing prices got even slipperier in many cases Tuesday. In a delayed response to the expiration-day plunge in May futures and cognizant of the dearth of weather-related load in virtually every market, month-ending prices fell between about a dime and more than half a dollar, with San Juan gas again joining the Rockies in taking the biggest hits.

President Bush’s focus on security in the upcoming State of the Union message will include “the security that comes from being energy-independent and having reliable supplies of American-made fuel, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a news briefing Thursday. “Among the domestic policy issues that the president will focus on throughout 2002 are the creation of jobs for the American people, helping the economy to grow out of the recession and recover, energy independence and the development of a comprehensive energy plan. I remind you that it again is another exciting bipartisan opportunity for the country. It passed — the president’s energy plan passed the House with a rather sizeable bipartisan vote; the President hopes the Senate will take action.” There has been no decision as to exactly what day the president’s address to Congress will be given this year, a spokesman said. It usually occurs around Jan. 20.

Having so far withstood record hydro-electric shortages and previously skyrocketing energy prices, Puget Sound Energy nevertheless is dissatisfied, asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to modify its mid-June western wholesale power price mitigation measures that the Bellevue, WA-based combination utility holding company claims are too focused on California.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. signed five-year agreements with 131 of its qualifying facilities (QFs) last week, ensuring the utility and its customers will receive a reliable supply of electricity at an average energy price of 5.37 cents/kWh. The contracts represent nameplate capacity of 2,950 MW compared to PG&E’s total QF contract nameplate capacity of 4,400 MW. On an average annual basis, the company receives 2,400 MW from all of its QFs, and the 131 QFs represent 1,600 MW of the total amount.

In a sequence that likely will be repeated often this summer, California’s independent transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, Thursday erred on the side of getting out advance warning of possible rolling blackouts only to pull back the emergency measure within minutes of the targeted time for blackouts to begin. As of 4 p.m. (PDT), the blackouts had not become necessary in the second consecutive day of Stage One and Two alerts.