Exec

In an election year move that is sure to stimulate commentary among political observers, California Gov. Gray Davis late Tuesday named a former utility executive and more recently an entrepreneur in the energy services business, Michael R. Peevey, to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), effective Saturday (March 9).

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has called on federal regulators to take legal action against Enron corporate officers for allegedly engaging in insider trading of company stock, and to freeze all proceeds arising from illegal stock sales pending the outcome of the litigation.

In an election year move that is sure to stimulate commentary among political observers, California Gov. Gray Davis late Tuesday named a former utility executive and more recently an entrepreneur in the energy services business, Michael R. Peevey, to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), effective Saturday (March 9). Peevey will fill out the rest of the term of Richard Bilas who announced last week he was resigning at the end of the business day Friday. Bilas stuck around this week for a major vote the CPUC has scheduled for today on the regulators’ earlier suspension of direct access, retail customer choice.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has called on federal regulators to take legal action against Enron corporate officers for allegedly engaging in insider trading of company stock, and to freeze all proceeds arising from illegal stock sales pending the outcome of the litigation.

Testifying before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on behalf of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), William J. Haener, executive vice president of natural gas for CMS Energy Corp., said that the interstate natural gas pipeline industry supports the development of a gas pipeline integrity rule but recommends longer time frames for inspection intervals. The congressional subcommittee is currently considering gas pipeline safety re-authorization legislation.

Enron Corp., the energy trading company after which many competitors tried to model themselves, was being run by “swindlers,” namely former CEO Jeffrey Skilling and ex-CFO Andrew Fastow, a top-level Enron executive told House subcommittee members Thursday.

Testifying before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Highways and Transit on behalf of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), William J. Haener, executive vice president of natural gas for CMS Energy Corp., said that the interstate natural gas pipeline industry supports the development of a gas pipeline integrity rule but recommends longer time frames for inspection intervals. The congressional subcommittee is currently considering gas pipeline safety re-authorization legislation.

Former Enron executive Mario Max Yzaguirre, who recently resigned as president of Enron de Mexico, has been named by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to fill the spot vacated by Judy Walsh on the three-member Texas Public Utilities Commission. Perry still has one spot to fill after former Chairman Pat Wood III was named to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Legislation pending on Capitol Hill that seeks to cut emissions of power plant pollutants would force electric utilities to jumpstart a “massive construction effort” in order to meet the compliance timeframe included in the measure, Gerard Anderson, president of DTE Energy Resources, told a Senate panel last Thursday. That construction effort, in turn, would hike the cost of power and in many regions impact the reliability of the overall electric grid, Anderson said.