Fanfare

With little fanfare from the lame-duck Clinton administration, FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker received a recess appointment last Monday from the White House that effectively would extend his term on the Commission until the Senate adjourns next year. It also re-designated him as chairman.

With little or no fanfare from the lame-duck Clintonadministration, FERC Chairman James J. Hoecker received a recessappointment yesterday from the White House that effectively extendshis term on the Commission until the Senate adjourns next year. Italso re-designated him as chairman.

With no notice and little fanfare-not even a press release-theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission got back to full strengthwith two “temporary” appointees, both holding existing appointivepositions in Gov. Gray Davis’ first-year administration. Indicativeof the seemingly low profile Gov. Davis is giving energy issues,the new commissioners were rushed onboard the five-membercommission June 3 so they could participate in some controversialtelecommunications cases.

The August natural gas futures contract slipped 1.1 cents to$2.439 Thursday, as traders scrambled to finish their businessahead of the long fourth-of-July weekend. “Today was pretty muchjust position covering ahead of the weekend,” a broker told GPI. “Idon’t think anyone was too concerned with, or had the goal of,moving August outside of its trading range,” he said. For thatreason, he was not surprised to see technical support at $2.38hold.

The May Nymex contract nudged 0.4 cents lower to $2.475 Friday,amid a day when the contract could neither sustain a move belowtechnical support at $2.44 nor rise any higher than $2.498. Totalestimated volume came in at 46,216, much of which was the work oftraders covering positions before the weekend, a source said.