Hung

Tripartisan climate change legislation, which was scheduled to be unveiled last Monday, hung in limbo after Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — the only Republican sponsor of the legislation — withdrew his support due to the Senate leadership’s plan to place immigration ahead of climate change on the Senate calendar.

Tripartisan climate change legislation, which was scheduled to be unveiled Monday, hung in limbo after Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — the only Republican sponsor of the legislation — withdrew due to the Senate leadership’s plan to place immigration ahead of climate change on the Senate calendar.

Tripartisan climate change legislation, which was scheduled to be unveiled Monday, hung in limbo after Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — the only Republican sponsor of the legislation — withdrew due to the Senate leadership’s plan to place immigration ahead of climate change on the Senate calendar.

The nomination of former Iowa utility regulator John Norris to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been hung up in the Senate for more than a month by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a Capitol Hill source confirmed. “She wants FERC to work on a hydro issue in Maine” before she will vote to confirm Norris, whose nomination was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in October and sent to the full Senate (see NGI, Oct. 12 ). Norris was a board member and chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board from March 2005 until earlier this year. He currently is chief of staff for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. If confirmed by the Senate, Norris would be one of three Democrats — the others being Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and Commissioner Suedeen Kelly — on the five-member FERC. Kelly has said she plans to leave FERC when her replacement is confirmed by the Senate, but the White House has not tapped anyone to fill her spot (see NGI, Sept. 28). Prior to coming to Washington, DC, Norris was Sen. John Kerry’s (D-MA) Iowa director during Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and had been chief of staff for Vilsack when he was governor of Iowa. Norris also ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002.

The nomination of former Iowa utility regulator John Norris to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been hung up in the Senate for more than a month by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a Capitol Hill source confirmed.

Murphy Oil Co., lifting a veil of secrecy that has hung over ahot drilling play for a year, told the National Energy Board itexpects to achieve production of up to 310 MMcf/d in northeasternBritish Columbia this year.

Still a little hung over from Wednesday’s 24-cent bull-party,natural gas traders elected to cool their heels yesterday, leavingthe market to quietly check to either side of unchanged. The Junecontract finished at $3.71, up 2.1 cents on the day.

Centra Gas Manitoba, an LDC serving 240,000 customers, is on thehook for $27.5 million due to a price management program theManitoba Public Utilities Board said was run “.with inexperiencedtraders, and with inadequate supervision.”