Gets

Interstate pipelines said they support FERC’s proposedrulemaking calling for them to post the identities of theirmarketing affiliates and any name change information on theInternet as part of the Commission’s effort to better monitortransactions between the parties. But they took issue with theproposed requirement that they update the information within threebusiness days of any change.

The sun likely won’t set on the Gas Industry Standards Boarduntil at least the end of 2001. After about an hour of debateThursday, the GISB board of directors voted to extend GISB’s sunsetclause from Dec. 31, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001. Had the board notextended the clause, GISB would have ceased to exist at year-end.The original resolution called for extending the clause to Dec. 31,2000. Some on the board wanted to do away with the clause. Hadthere been enough support for that, future disbanding of GISB couldresult only from a majority vote by the board. Others wanted thesunset clause not to come up again for four or five years. GISBExecutive Director Rae McQuade said she was happy with the boarddecision.

FERC earlier this week gave its blessing to the indirect mergerof two Midwest electric utilities – Wisconsin Public Service andUpper Peninsula Power.

After two years of hearings and oral arguments, FERC yesterdayfinally gave Granite State Gas Transmission the go-ahead to buildits controversial liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the townof Wells, ME.

FERC yesterday gave its blessing to a hard-fought fundingsettlement that provides the road map for the Gas ResearchInstitute to begin its seven-year journey to become avoluntarily-funded organization.

NIPSCO announced 3,281 out of 50,000 eligible residentialcustomers in the South Bend-Mishawaka-Granger area and 920 out of1,500 eligible commercial and small industrial buyers in thenorthern third of the state of Indiana will begin receiving gasfrom alternative suppliers for the first time starting in April.

FERC approved the divestiture-sale of most of the non-nucleargeneration assets of New England Power Co. (NEPCO) and NarragansettElectric Co. to USGen New England Inc., an unregulated subsidiaryof PG&E Corp.

The upstream Canadian portion of the Portland Natural GasTransmission Project – the PNGTS Extension, which will link theU.S. pipeline with TransCanada PipeLines via an extension of theTrans Qu‚bec & Maritimes — received a favorable environmentalreview from Canada’s National Energy Board. The NEB concluded the132-mile extension is “not likely to cause significant adverseenvironmental effects, provided that the mitigative measuresidentified during the public hearing are implemented and enforced.”The NEB submitted its Comprehensive Study Report on the project tothe federal Minister of Environment and to the CanadianEnvironmental Assessment Agency last week