Files

With more than $200 million in added utility infrastructure investment in the state, Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. filed with Idaho regulators Friday for a combined $23.7 million in rate increases to cover its electricity and natural gas utility operations serving 109,000 and 62,000 power and gas customers respectively.

South Jersey Gas said because of its storage-based hedging strategy it will save its average customer about $62 next year. The company has promised an extra holiday gift this year in the form of a 4.4% rate reduction.

South Jersey Gas said because of its storage-based hedging strategy it will save its average customer about $62 next year. The company has promise an extra holiday gift this year in the form of a 4.4% rate reduction.

Firing the latest shot in what has been a long and heated argument, U.S. Energy Corp. and Crested Corp., doing business as USECC, reported Tuesday that in October it filed a cross-appeal of the judgment entered by the U.S. District Court of Colorado on Aug. 1, which ordered RWE Nukem, Inc. and its subsidiary, Cycle Resource Investment Corp., to pay USECC $20,044,183.

At a time most companies are seeking an increase in their gas cost adjustment (CGA) rates, Unitil Corp. said its subsidiary, Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Co. (FG&E), is heading in the other direction, filing a request to decrease its CGA adjustment rates with the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy (MDTE).

Discovery Gas Transmission LLC has filed an application with FERC for an expansion that would include four new delivery points, increasing its delivery capability into the southern Louisiana pipeline grid by 150,000 Dth/d.

After nearly 27 years of operation, the Gas Research Institute (GRI) filed its last annual budget request with FERC last week and will be formally phased out over the next few years. For its last year of funding through pipeline surcharges, GRI is requesting a research, development and demonstration (RD&D) program budget for 2004 of $60 million. In addition to the FERC portion of the budget, GRI anticipates receiving about $6.3 million in co-funding from industry and government sources in 2004.

The Gas Research Institute (GRI) filed its last annual budget request with FERC on Monday in what has been a seven-year transition period from a regulatory funded organization, which was financially supported through gas pipeline surcharges, to a privately funded organization that is part of the Gas Technology Institute, an industry research and consulting firm.

Oklahoma City-based independent producer Aspen Group Resources Corp. is suing its former chairman and CEO for alledgedly misappropriating funds and engaging in a “patter of conduct to conceal his activities” from the company board.