Costa

Four members of Congress assured the natural gas industry that they are working on a bipartisan basis to create comprehensive energy legislation, and appreciate recent input from some unusual quarters — specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency and Pope Francis. They did not, however, appreciate shouted comments by environmental activists repeatedly interrupting their presentation at the Natural Gas Roundtable session in Washington Thursday.

About 4.5 miles of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) natural gas pipeline segments in Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties in northern California may not have undergone integrity assessments prior to Dec. 17, 2007, as required by federal law, PG&E said in a letter sent to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Oct. 19. PG&E said it recently discovered that it does not have documentation to show that the high-risk segments — defined as having a threat caused by corrosion, excavation-induced damage or material defects — were properly assessed for internal corrosion threat. “Accordingly, PG&E is treating these segments as requiring baseline assessments,” PG&E said in the letter. CPUC’s safety staff has alleged that PG&E committed significant violations of pipeline safety rules, which staff claims contributed to a gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion two years ago in San Bruno, CA (see Daily GPI, Sept. 13, 2010). Last week, former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell was appointed to serve as mediator in ongoing talks aimed at resolving a series of enforcement cases against PG&E stemming from the San Bruno blast (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17).

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., finds itself mired in a sea of red ink as it compiles its fiscal 2008 results, selling off a Houston-based energy consulting firm it acquired four years ago after announcing earlier this year that it was cutting about one-third of its work force.

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., is mired in a sea of red ink as it compiles its fiscal 2008 results, selling off a Houston-based energy consulting firm it acquired four years ago and announcing earlier this year that it was cutting about one-third of its work force.

Sempra Energy and the Mexican government have accomplished what California has been unable to do in siting Sempra’s Energia Costa Azul liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal along the Pacific Coast of North Baja California, Mexico, Timothy Alan Simon told his fellow commissioners at the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) Thursday.

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., hired an investment banking unit with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) earlier in September to assess the national energy retailer’s options for selling or partnering with another firm in the industry. A letter and subsequent financial filing by Commerce’s largest shareholder prompted the action.

A pioneering firm in California’s ill-fated competitive retail electricity market, Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc. hired an investment banking unit with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) earlier in September to assess the national energy retailer’s options for selling or partnering with another firm in the industry. A letter and subsequent financial filing by Commerce’s largest shareholder prompted the action.

Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc. announced Monday it has closed a $4 million acquisition of 300 commercial/industrial (C/I) natural gas customer accounts from Houston Energy Services Co. (HESCO). The customers have accounts in five states — California, Florida, Nevada, Kentucky and Texas — with an estimated collective load of 12 Bcf/year, effectively tripling Commerce’s natural gas sales volumes.

Costa Mesa, CA-based Commerce Energy Group Inc., which bills itself as the nation’s largest independent retail energy provider, announced Tuesday it has signed a major natural gas supply agreement with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second largest public school system. Commerce officials refused to give any details on the volumes or terms of the gas supply deal, which starts in July. The agreement covers 217 campuses within the LAUSD.