Comprehensive

El Paso Corp. announced Friday it reached a “comprehensive settlement agreement in principle” that resolves all regulatory and legal actions related to the sale or delivery of natural gas and electricity to California and three other western states from September 1996 to the present. The cost of the settlement was estimated by the California governor at $1.7 billion.

Assuming all of the conferees for the energy bill have been selected by then, conference negotiations on the comprehensive legislation are expected to get under way Friday, according to staff members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The report would be due within six months after the enactment of a Senate energy bill, and would provide a comprehensive analysis of gas supply and demand in the United States for the period between 2004 and 2015. It would recommend federal actions to balance supply and demand. The National Petroleum Council (NPC), an oil and gas advisory group to the DOE secretary, already is working on a report on gas demand and supply issues, which is expected to be released in September.

The Senate is expected to take up consideration of a Republican-crafted comprehensive energy package on Monday (May 5), with a vote to come within two to three weeks, according to Capitol Hill observers.

The Senate is expected to take up consideration of a Republican-crafted comprehensive energy package next Monday, with a vote to come within two to three weeks, according to Capitol Hill observers.

Westar Energy Inc. last Thursday filed a comprehensive plan with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) outlining how the company intends to reduce debt and become exclusively an electric utility. The plan calls for Westar to sell its non-utility and non-core assets, reduce its common dividend and refocus the company solely on its electric utility operations.

Shares of Westar Energy Inc. jumped more than 5% on Thursday after the company filed a comprehensive plan with the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) outlining how the company intends to reduce debt and become exclusively an electric utility.

More than six months after California regulators approved a comprehensive settlement for the unbundling of Southern California Gas Co.’s intrastate pipeline transmission and storage system, the deal has yet to be implemented, and its prospects are uncertain at best, a SoCalGas official told an industry audience in San Diego Thursday.

An eagerly anticipated comprehensive study of the nation’s electrical transmission highway unveiled last Wednesday by the Department of Energy (DOE) recommends that the federal agency review the grid every two years to pinpoint “national interest” transmission bottlenecks. The report also says that Congress should give FERC limited federal transmission siting authority and recommends that regional transmission organizations (RTOs) be made responsible for ensuring that transmission bottlenecks are addressed.