Concerned

Winter may be over as far as most traders are concerned, but there are still a few lingering hints of it that, along with fresh strength in the energy futures complex, proved sufficient to drive most points moderately higher in Thursday’s overall mixed price picture.

FPL Group last week raised its full-year 2002 earnings forecast by about 5 cents a share, and now expects earnings through next year will be on the rise as well. As it had expected, the third quarter was hit with charges in its unregulated power group and mark-to-market accounting, which pushed earnings down 55% over the same period of 2001. Minus the charges, FPL surpassed Wall Street estimates.

Seeking to improve market transparency and provide a better means to detect and discourage discriminatory practices, FERC last Wednesday said that it would replace a number of reporting filings currently made by the power industry with a quarterly electronic report, which the Commission believes will equalize reporting requirements for both traditional public utilities and power marketers and make information more easily available to the public.

After seven technical conferences and four alternative dispute-assisted settlement conferences addressing the capacity allocation problems on El Paso Natural Gas, FERC Chairman Pat Wood told the pipeline, its customers and state regulators last week that “we kind of need to close this baby out.” El Paso President Patricia Shelton agreed, adding “it’s getting ugly.”

Oil and gas industry representatives are concerned that problems with the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) are not being fixed by Congress despite the current opportunity to do so with the required reauthorization of CZMA and the urgent pleas by industry and the Bush administration that changes must be made to remove a substantial impediment to the nation’s energy supply.

Oil and gas industry representatives are concerned that problems with the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) are not being fixed by Congress despite the current opportunity to do so with the required reauthorization of CZMA and the urgent pleas by industry and the Bush administration that changes must be made to remove a substantial impediment to the nation’s energy supply.

Reviving images of the summer of 2000 in San Diego, Southwest Gas Corp. customers in the surrounding mountain communities east of Los Angeles turned out in relatively large numbers for a California Public Utilities Commission public hearing last Tuesday night in Big Bear Lake, CA, objecting to the Las Vegas-based utility’s rates last year.

Reviving images of the summer of 2000 in San Diego, Southwest Gas Corp. customers in the surrounding mountain communities east of Los Angeles turned out in relatively large numbers for a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) public hearing Tuesday night in Big Bear Lake, CA, objecting to the Las Vegas-based utility’s rates last year.

Economic recovery and lower energy prices are expected in the future, but energy industry executives also have a high concern for the security of oil and natural gas supplies, according to a survey conducted last week at Andersen’s 22nd Annual Energy Symposium in Houston.