Is the second shoe of another bankruptcy filing in the energy merchant sector about to drop? No doubt it’s a question on the minds of a lot of energy industry executives after Xcel Energy last Monday said that there is a “substantial likelihood” that its NRG Energy unit will be the subject of a bankruptcy proceeding and Reliant Resources warned that it may need to pursue Chapter 11 if it can’t cobble together financing deals on acceptable terms.
Filings
Articles from Filings
Utilities Withdraw GridSouth Filings in the Carolinas to Plan Revisions
Citing what they called “regulatory uncertainties” in the regional transmission organization (RTO) arena, Duke Energy, CP&L and South Carolina Electric & Gas last week announced that they were withdrawing their applications before state utility regulators in South Carolina and North Carolina to transfer functional control of their electric transmission assets to the GridSouth RTO. But the utilities also said that they remain committed to the GridSouth RTO and plan to file new applications before state regulators in the near future that will include a revised GridSouth structure.
BPU Approves PSE&G’s 3.3% Rate Decrease
Ringing in the new year with a natural gas rate cut, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) issued orders Wednesday on a number of PSE&G filings, which have the combined effect of reducing rates for the company’s typical residential gas heating customers (who use an average of 200 therms in the winter and 1,252 therms annually) by 3.3%.
CA Continues Filings to Hammer at FERC
Undaunted by a quick and negative response from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week on their effort to force federal regulators to install price caps in the West (see Daily GPI, May 30), California lawmakers fired off a filing to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Tuesday, seeking rehearing of an April 26 FERC decision. The state lawmakers
Pennsylvania Closing in on Statewide Gas Choice
Gas restructuring filings made this week with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission by Penn Fuel Gas, Carnegie Natural andPECO Energy Co. have set the stage for only the fourth state in thecountry to provide statewide access to the retail gas market. Outof the 22 states with gas utilities employing pilot programs, onlyNew Mexico, West Virginia and New York allow gas customersstatewide to choose their gas suppliers so far. Pennsylvaniaregulators now say statewide unbundling will occur by July.
KS Case Pits State Law Against FERC’s
Filings before the FERC relating to refund of ad valorem taxesimproperly collected by Kansas gas producers during the 1980squestion whether FERC’s authority overrules that of the statelegislature.