Gets

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) approved New YorkState Electric and Gas Co.’s (NYSEG) sale of all of itsfossil-fueled generation plants to AES NY Inc. and Mission EnergyWestside Inc. The $1.85 billion sale furthers the commission goalof encouraging utility divestiture of generation facilities as onestep in the process of introducing competition to New York’selectric industry. NYSEG is the first utility in the state toreceive commission approval for the sale of generation facilities.

FERC yesterday approved an amended certificate for SouthernNatural Gas (Sonat) to build a controversial mainline extension tooffer competing transportation services to customers in northernAlabama and Georgia. The fate of the project, however, still hangsin the balance given that Interior Department’s Fish and WildlifeService (FWS) hasn’t issued Sonat a permit yet to build through aprotected public refuge.

The 1 Bcf/d Vector Pipeline project has taken the lead amongmajor pipelines designed to move gas east from Chicago. Vector wonpreliminary approval on non-environmental grounds from FERC lastweek, which puts it ahead of the TriState Pipeline, IndependencePipeline and the Tennessee Eastern Express projects in the strugglethrough the regulatory process.

The 1 Bcf/d Vector Pipeline project won preliminary approval onnon-environmental grounds from FERC yesterday. The Commission saidno evidence was produced to demonstrate the Midwest project, whichwould link the Chicago, IL, and Dawn, ON, gas transportation hubs,was not required by the public convenience and necessity.

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline received approval from theMaine Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) to construct Phase IIof its project. Phase II includes about 200 miles of 24-inch and30-inch diameter mainline pipeline traversing southern, central andeastern Maine from Westbrook to Baileyville, ME, as well as about120 miles of proposed laterals and spurs to serve Maine industrialsand electric generators.

Washington Water Power affiliate Avista Laboratories Inc., adeveloper of fuel cells with proton exchange membrane (PEM)technology for distributed power markets, announced the receipt ofa $2 million technology development award from the Department ofCommerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)Advanced Technology Program (ATP).

FERC last week gave conditional approval to a major expansionand upgrade of Jackson Prairie Storage that would add 3.2 Bcf ofworking gas capacity and would boost the firm deliverability rateof the Pacific Northwest storage facility by 300 MMcf/d, both ofwhich would heighten its peak-shaving capabilities.

FERC has given the go-ahead to a major project that wouldincrease the deliverability of Jackson Prairie Storage by 300MMcf/d and would more than double its best-efforts withdrawal rate,both of which will boost the peak-shaving capabilities of thestorage provider.

Expectations often differ from what actually comes to fruitionin the volatile arena of natural gas futures, and yesterday thatpoint was driven home when a bullish combination of slow-to-resumesupply outages met with a smaller-than-expected storage refill.Traders chased the market higher most of the day, and advances inthe evening computer trading Access session nearly matched theregular pit-trading gains. The November contract received thelargest boost, rocketing 16.8 cents to post a final trade of $2.515last night after briefly settling at $2.433 earlier in the day.