Elizabeth

Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Commissioner Barry Smitherman was unanimously elected RRC chairman. He replaces former Chair Elizabeth Ames Jones, who left the commission to devote more time to her campaign for Texas Senate (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15). Her seat on the three-member RRC has yet to be filled. Smitherman was appointed to the RRC in July 2011. Previously he sat on the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where in 2007 he became chairman. Smitherman currently serves as Texas’ representative on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, as vice chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ gas committee. He is on the visiting committee of the Bureau of Economic Geology with the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas School of Law Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law, and the Eanes Education Foundation advisory board.

Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) member Elizabeth Ames Jones on Friday joined a chorus of those who are blasting the President Obama’s decision not to open new areas in the offshore to exploration.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Jones has slammed Congress’ attempt to usurp the states’ authority over oil and natural gas exploration and production activities on private and state lands.

Republican Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida and Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina have called on the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to review the projected cost of carrying out an inventory of oil and natural gas resources in the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

A bipartisan group of senators led by Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) is opposed to opening up restricted areas of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) to oil and natural gas exploration as part of upcoming omnibus energy legislation.

Mirant Corp. shares plummeted 16% Thursday to $2.28 following a downgrade to “sell” from “neutral” by Merrill Lynch analyst Elizabeth Parrella. She said the chances are increasing that the company will miss its July 14 deadline to gain approval from banks of its plan to refinance $4.9 billion of debt.

Elizabeth Moler, former FERC chair and now senior vice-president at Exelon, last Wednesday urged the Commission to start providing some certainty in the area of regional transmission organization (RTO) formation, noting that several utilities are drawing a line in the sand on spending more money on RTO-related development until that certainty is offered.

John W. Rowe, Chairman, President and CEO of Unicom, announcedthe appointment of Elizabeth Anne (“Betsy”) Moler, 50, as thecompany’s senior vice president for federal government affairs.Moler, currently an attorney in private practice in Washington,D.C. is a former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(“FERC”). Upon completion of Unicom’s merger with PECO Energy, shewill head the combined company’s Washington office.

John W. Rowe, Chairman, President and CEO of Unicom, announcedthe appointment of Elizabeth Anne (“Betsy”) Moler, 50, as thecompany’s senior vice president for federal government affairs.Moler, currently an attorney in private practice in Washington,D.C. is a former chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission(“FERC”). Upon completion of Unicom’s merger with PECO Energy, shewill head the combined company’s Washington office.