Emphasis

Although FERC is pulling out the stops to address problems inthe bulk power market, with an emphasis on California, ChairmanJames J. Hoecker yesterday made clear most of the responsibilityfor correcting the dysfunctional power market lies with theCalifornia legislators and regulators who created it.

Marking CMS Energy’s continued emphasis on the liquefied naturalgas (LNG) market, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (CMS-MST)announced agreements to buy six LNG cargoes for delivery to the CMSTrunkline LNG facility in Lake Charles, LA, last week. Terms of thetransactions were not disclosed.

California Gov. Gray Davis’ $68 billion fiscal 2001 budgetproposal unveiled this week includes little or no emphasis onenergy issues, although some of the stated concerns about”infrastructure” may spill over into reliability issues in the gasand electricity transmission/distribution industries. For energyindustry observers there are mostly unanswered questions, includingpeople within state government.

Enron Corp. turned in second quarter results that beat WallStreet expectations. Also yesterday, Enron Energy Services (EES)announced its biggest energy outsourcing deal yet, and the parentcompany touted its nascent communications business to analysts,saying Communications, which plans to enter bandwidth trading, nowwill be classified as a core business. While the company’s energyservices business continued to lose money, it still appears to beon track to at least break even in the fourth quarter, the companyand analysts said.

Putting more emphasis its core business, Crystal Oil Co. changedits name recently to Crystal Gas Storage Inc. The company owns andoperates two natural gas storage facilities near Hattiesburg, MSand owns interests in other natural gas properties in Louisiana.