Frustrated

Frustrated by postponement of an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease sale for waters off the coast of Virginia, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would compel the Department of Interior to proceed with a sale within one year of the legislation’s passage if the state’s governor requests it.

Frustrated by postponement of an Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) lease sale for waters off the coast of Virginia, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would compel the Department of Interior to proceed with a sale within one year of the legislation’s passage if the state’s governor requests it.

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) Thursday placed a hold on the nomination of Hilary Tompkins for solicitor of the Department of Interior, saying he was frustrated with her responses to questions about the Utah Wilderness Settlement, which removed millions of acres in Utah from wilderness protection and opened them for potential development.

Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT) Thursday placed a hold on the nomination for solicitor of the Department of Interior, saying he was frustrated with the nominee’s responses when asked her opinion on the Utah Wilderness Settlement, which removed millions of acres in Utah from wilderness protection and opened them for potential development.

Ending weeks of haggling over critical energy legislation, the Republican-led Senate threw in the towel last Thursday night, substituting last year’s Democrat-crafted energy bill for this year’s legislation and passing it by a vote of 84-14. The first time around — in April 2002 — the same bill cleared the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 88-11 (see NGI, April 29). Last week’s vote, which sets the stage for Congress to vote out the first piece of major energy legislation in 11 years, came as Congress prepared to leave for its August recess.

The Senate leadership on Thursday was considering a Democratic-initiated proposal to substitute last year’s energy bill — which passed the Senate by a vote of 88-11 in April 2002 — for the current energy bill and pass it before leaving for the August recess (see Daily GPI, April 26, 2002).

Several frustrated Reliant Energy Inc. shareholders on Wednesday urged R. Steve Letbetter, chairman and CEO, to resign, insinuating during an annual meeting in Houston that the utility giant has deteriorated since Letbetter took over as CEO in 1999. Calls for his resignation, as well as others from Reliant’s executive team, were not submitted to a formal vote, and Letbetter did not answer questions about whether the company would be in better shape without him at the helm.

Frustrated by inaction at the federal level on wholesale power price caps, California gubernatorial staffers Wednesday tossed their latest grenade on the public negotiations table by supporting a proposed state windfall electricity profits tax. They said Gov. Gray Davis will consider signing such a new law if it hits his desk. But they carefully drew short of saying categorically that the governor will sign a bill or that he is lobbying for one.

Frustrated by the inability of El Paso Natural Gas and itsshippers to resolve the capacity-allocation problems on thepipeline, FERC yesterday unveiled its own “multi-step” solutionthat requires El Paso to make a one-time assignment of primary firmcapacity rights based on shipper elections to alleviate thecongestion surrounding gas shipments to the Southern CaliforniaGas/Topock point and the other three Topock points.