Commissioner

Twenty six members of the House have called for FERC Chairman Pat Wood and Commissioner Nora M. Brownell to recuse themselves from the Commission’s ongoing probe into Enron Corp.’s role in the potential price manipulation of energy markets in the West, citing their past connections to the company’s top officer.

The “root cause” of problems stemming from decremental bids for imbalance energy in California’s energy market is poor market design, FERC Commissioner William Massey said last Wednesday. At the Commission’s latest agenda meeting, he urged the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to tackle the decremental bid issue in a comprehensive market redesign proposal, which the grid operator has to file this spring at FERC.

Prompted “in part by the Enron episode,” SEC Commissioner Isaac Hunt Jr. told Congress last week that the agency intends to begin an inquiry into whether it should regulate credit rating companies, as well as explore the need for greater competition within that industry.

The current Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) got off to a rocky start, but it seems to have “hit its stride,” said a former FERC commissioner last Thursday.

FERC Commissioner Nora M. Brownell pledged her support Wednesday for a Commission investigation into charges that Enron Corp. may have manipulated energy prices in California’s forward markets, saying the agency needs to “clear up [any] lingering doubt” about this before it can begin to build a “stable, predictable market” in the western state.

FERC Chairman Pat Wood has named Edward M. Meyers, commissioner with the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, to head up the federal agency’s new Division of State Relations that will work closely with states on critical electric and natural gas issues.

FERC Chairman Pat Wood has named Edward M. Meyers, commissioner with the District of Columbia Public Service Commission, to head up the federal agency’s new Division of State Relations that will work closely with states on critical electric and natural gas issues.

Commissioner Linda Breathitt announced that Jennifer Shepherd, a four-year veteran of FERC, has been named technical advisor of her staff.

FERC Commissioner Nora Brownell suggested last Thursday that FERC join forces with the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to determine what other data could be made available to the natural gas market on a regular basis to provide more transparency on prices.