Headline

Although The Weather Channel’s website headline said “Spring has sprung” Thursday morning, it will not officially be true until Saturday. But the continuation of spring-like weather in most of the U.S. was able to ensure that cash market softness would endure. Of course, the previous day’s second consecutive fall of 4.4 cents by April futures was another bearish influence.

Although The Weather Channel’s website headline said “Spring has sprung” Thursday morning, it will not officially be true until Saturday. But the continuation of spring-like weather in most of the U.S. was able to ensure that cash market softness would endure. Of course, the previous day’s second consecutive fall of 4.4 cents by April futures was another bearish influence.

The headline, “Texas Railroad Commission Tries to Block Renewable Transmission Lines,” which accompanied a story regarding some motions filed by the commission to intervene in several Public Utility Commission of Texas proceedings (see Daily GPI, Dec. 3), was misleading. The commission does not necessarily oppose Oncor’s plans to build renewable transmission lines across the state, and Oncor will work with the commission to address all of its concerns as it would with any intervenor in the process, a spokesperson said.

The headline on The Weather Channel’s (TWC) next-day forecast posted Thursday afternoon said it all: “Bitter cold for much of the country.” As could be expected, prices continued to rise at most points Thursday, with only a few flat to nearly 20 cents lower Northeast citygates preventing all-points gains.

Along with its two more headline-grabbing actions on electricity procurement and transmission, the California Public Utilities Commission last Thursday established a two-phase proceeding to be completed before the end of the year to “ensure reliable, long-term supplies of natural gas” are available to the state.

The daily drubbing of bad news within the energy merchant sector might indicate that the downgrades, asset sales and layoffs are characteristic of the entire energy industry, said Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in a recent report. However, the sector’s problems began “well before” California’s power crisis and Enron Corp.’s bankruptcy, and then were hit by collateral damage. Despite the upheaval, however, companies that have kept their solid, less dynamic cash flow from physical energy assets still retain their “investment-grade characteristics.”