Guidelines

By a vote of 10-3, the Senate negotiators passed the nearly 1,200-page report on a broad energy bill out of conference late Monday, but not before the Republican majority on the panel shot down nearly every proposal offered by Senate Democrat conferees. The report was to be sent to the House to take up Tuesday.

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has updated the agency’s guidelines for reporting the results of investigations of cultural resources (i.e. historic properties), which are carried out for new pipeline projects. For details about the guideline changes, go to the Commission’s home page at http://www.ferc.fed.us.

In an effort to conform with recently published guidelines from the New York Stock Exchange and stay current with the evolving industry environment, El Paso Corp. said Monday it has restructured some of its executive management. The management changes come days after the company was found guilty of withholding natural gas supplies during the California energy crisis of winter 2000-2001 (see Daily GPI, Sept. 24).

As the rules of the electricity game continue to change, the current set of voluntary transmission system reliability guidelines is starting to look more and more antiquated, several experts told a Senate Governmental Affairs Committee hearing yesterday examining the impact of electric industry restructuring on system reliability. The voluntary approach to reliability should be scrapped in favor of a mandatory set of rules that include an enforcement element, the experts told the panel.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved Columbia Gasof Pennsylvania’s restructuring settlement, making the company thefirst to gain commission approval under the guidelines set forththis summer in the Natural Gas Choice and Competition Act. Thesettlement, which included 26 parties, allows Columbia to advanceits choice program, expand its customer assistance program (CAP)statewide, and provide telephonic and Internet enrollment.

California regulators took another step toward unbundling thenatural gas business in the state last week, issuing proposedguidelines and saying it will remove limits on the state’sseven-year core aggregation program, meaning any size core customereventually will be able to choose a new supplier.

The American Gas Association is seeking to get its two cents’worth in on the conduct of affiliated marketers by adopting eightprinciples intended to guide state officials in policymaking. “AGAbelieves that state officials already have ample authority toreview relationships between natural gas utilities and theiraffiliates,” said Miriam Swydan Erickson, AGA senior director ofgovernment relations. “The new AGA principles are intended toassist state regulators considering additional rules.”