Critical

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Wednesday urged Congressional leaders to retain the Intangible Drilling Costs (IDC) tax deduction, which he said is critical to support the state’s now-struggling natural gas producers.

Tennessee lifted Friday a Critical Day 1 OFO for Zones 1, L, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Tennessee also said it had resumed allowing due-shipper imbalance payback nominations.

Due to colder market-area temperatures and in order to maintain its linepack, Tennessee is issuing a Critical Day 1 OFO, effective Thursday until further notice, “for all LMS-PA Balancing Parties (including SA contracts acting as balancing parties), LMS-MA, and LMS-PL Balancing Parties with meters located in Zones 1, L, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.” The tolerance for negative daily imbalances will be 2% of scheduled quantities or 500 Dth, whichever is greater.

Consultants hired by the staff of the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) agree that a critical need exists for electric reliability improvements by 2011 in northern Virginia and recommend that Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed route for a transmission line would meet that need with the least impact to the state, the Richmond, VA-based utility said Wednesday.

Columbia Gas is designating Wednesday as a Critical Day in Market Areas 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33 and 34. “Based on forecasted markets, available facilities and capacity utilization, transporter [Columbia] projects that all available capacity to the aforementioned Market Areas will be required to meet firm service obligations, leaving…zero nonfirm capacity,” the pipeline said. Shippers with primary firm rights or secondary priority rights in the affected Market Areas will not be impacted.

The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco last week rejected a petition by the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX) to stay three critical elements of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Dec. 15 order, which mapped out a series of reforms for chronic problems in the California wholesale power market.

Colorado’s natural gas drilling shows unrelenting growth, and “nothing could be more critical” than having an open and transparent dialogue with the industry, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said last week.

Columbia Gas declared Friday a “Critical Day” in Market Areas 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39 and 40. Citing forecasted markets, available facilities and capacity utilization, Columbia said it projects that all available capacity to those market areas will be required to meet firm service obligations, leaving zero nonfirm capacity. Shippers with primary firm rights or secondary priority rights will not be impacted, Columbia said.

Columbia Gas said Wednesday’s gas day will be deemed a “Critical Day” in Market Areas 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33 and 34. Based on forecasted markets, available facilities and capacity utilization, Columbia projected that all available capacity in those areas will be required to meet firm service obligations, and thus zero nonfirm capacity will be available. Shippers with primary firm or secondary priority rights will not be impacted.