Forced

The blizzard that blanketed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastearlier this week forced the cancellation of a major meeting thatwas called to consider whether the Gas Industry Standards Board(GISB) should expand its reach to develop national standards forthe retail gas market, as well as for the retail and wholesalepower markets.

The financial risk associated with a lawsuit against its mergerpartner Southwest Gas forced ONEOK to call off the deal lateFriday.

After a forced five week layoff because of marketing tacticsviolations, Energy America announced yesterday it is poised tore-enter the New Jersey electricity marketing arena. The SempraEnergy affiliate recently reached an interim agreement with stateofficials that will allow the marketer to continue servingcustomers, pending the signing of a final order.

After a July power price spike forced it to default on severalsales agreements with marketers and led to a $73 million net lossthat month, Cinergy Corp. seriously considered quitting the supplybusiness altogether (See NGI Aug. 9, Aug. 11). But CEO James E.Rogers said last week the company’s board of directors hasunanimously decided Cinergy should stick with it as the industrymoves to a competitive environment.

Independence and MarketLink pipeline sponsors were forced to runthe gauntlet last week at a special FERC conference. The event drewbuses filed with t-shirted crowds of pipeline supporters and anopposing army of congressmen, state representatives, localpoliticians and landowner advocates, the likes of which hasn’t beenseen at the Commission since the Iroquois Pipeline project wasproposed in the early 1990s.

A change in the timing and location of North Carolina’s powergeneration needs has forced Carolina Power & Light (CP&L)and Southern Natural Gas Co. to put a hold on their PalmettoInterstate Pipeline and consider other pipeline alternatives. Thecompanies said last week they have suspended ongoing routeselection and survey activities for Palmetto and are analyzing twocompeting pipeline projects.

A change in the timing and location of North Carolina’s powergeneration needs has forced Carolina Power & Light (CP&L)and Southern Natural Gas Co. to put a hold on their PalmettoInterstate Pipeline and consider other pipeline alternatives. Thecompanies said yesterday they have suspended ongoing routeselection and survey activities for Palmetto and are analyzing twocompeting pipeline projects.

Non-regulated utility marketing affiliates may become a thing ofthe past, not as a result of forced divestiture but of voluntaryseparation, according to Hagler Bailly Consulting’s Ken Malloy.