Corporation

Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode is waiting forsomeone to be politically incorrect — at least when it comes tosetting up a domestic energy policy. She readily admits, however,that the problems that basically eliminated natural gas drillingfor nearly two years in her state won’t be solved overnight.

Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode is waiting forsomeone to be politically incorrect — at least when it comes tosetting up a domestic energy policy. She readily admits, however,that the problems that basically eliminated natural gas drillingfor nearly two years in her state won’t be solved overnight.

Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. has been cleared by the OklahomaCorporation Commission of any wrongdoing regarding how it evaluatestransmission service bids for ONG customers, but the company thatfiled the original complaint — Enogex — is appealing thebidding process to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

As part of an order approved yesterday by the OklahomaCorporation Commission (OCC), Oklahoma Natural Gas has agreed tolower its rates by $20 million and withdraw its state supreme courtappeal of a 1998 OCC order that required unbundling of its upstreamgas transportation and storage operations. The decision was part ofa comprehensive agreement signed by ONG, the OCC staff and theOklahoma Attorney General’s office, and approved by the OCC.

The Virginia Corporation Commission (SCC) has given finalapproval to the merger of Dominion Resources Inc. (DRI) andConsolidated Natural Gas Co. CNG). The SCC said it is satisfied therecent approval of the merger by the Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) is not inconsistent with the Virginia commission’sprevious orders. The SCC reserved the opportunity to review the SECorder to ensure that Virginia’s ability to safeguard Virginiaratepayers was maintained. The merger means the control of VirginiaNatural Gas (VNG), a subsidiary of CNG, will transfer to DRI, theparent company of Virginia Power.

Following the Tortoise and the Hare maxim that slow and steadyoften wins the race, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) hasdecided to approach retail competition at a turtle’s pace. The KCClast week tossed out the idea of installing statewide customerchoice and instead chose to leave open the possibility that MidwestEnergy, one of the state’s many LDCs, can, if it so chooses, filean application for a small retail pilot program.

Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chairman Bob Anthony stillbelieves his state’s ratepayers are getting the short end of thestick in a 10-year supply contract that Oklahoma Natural Gas (ONG)originally made with now-bankrupt Dynamic Energy Resources. That1993 contract was divided and transferred to two other suppliersnow serving the utility under the original terms.

Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chairman Bob Anthony still isnot satisfied that his state’s ratepayers are not getting the shortend of the stick in a 10-year supply contract between OklahomaNatural Gas (ONG) and Dynamic Energy Resources. In a press releaseissued earlier this week, Anthony charges under the contract ONG ispaying 50% more than it should be for some of its gas supply andpassing the cost on to consumers.

Oneok Inc. CEO Larry Brummett and Oklahoma CorporationCommission (OCC) Chairman Bob Anthony sparred last week overwhether a 1993 gas purchase contract of Oneok subsidiary OklahomaNatural Gas (ONG) has been found to be fair to ratepayers. Asthings stood Friday, Anthony was all but calling for aninvestigation of the contract.