Immediately

The board of directors of Williams named Steven J. Malcolm president and COO effective immediately. Formerly president and CEO of Williams Energy Services and executive vice president of Williams, Malcolm also was elected to the board. Keith E. Bailey, 59, will relinquish his responsibilities as president of the company and will remain chairman and CEO until his expected retirement at the next annual meeting of shareholders on May 17, 2002. Bailey was elected president in 1992 and chairman in 1994.

The board of directors of Williams named Steven J. Malcolm president and COO effective immediately. Formerly president and CEO of Williams Energy Services and executive vice president of Williams, Malcolm also was elected to the board. Keith E. Bailey, 59, will relinquish his responsibilities as president of the company and will remain chairman and CEO until his expected retirement at the next annual meeting of shareholders on May 17, 2002. Bailey was elected president in 1992 and chairman in 1994.

California regulators and two state utilities have asked FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner to admit a highly sensitive internal memorandum, that allegedly demonstrates the intimate working relationship between parent El Paso Corp. and affiliates El Paso Natural Gas and El Paso Merchant Energy Co. (EPME), into the record of the high-profile proceeding exploring charges of affiliate abuse.

MRT advised shippers Tuesday that effective immediately it is not accepting nominations that create a long imbalance on its system. Customers with current long positions are expected to correct their imbalance by the end of this week and to remain in balance for the rest of July. No-notice customers were reminded that they may change their no-notice option and allow storage injections to eliminate their imbalance.

Enron Corp. reported that Vice Chairman J. Clifford Baxter is resigning effective immediately. “Over the past 10 years, Cliff has made a tremendous contribution to Enron’s evolution, particularly as a member of the team that built Enron’s wholesale business,” said Jeff Skilling, Enron’s CEO. “His creativity, intelligence, sense of humor and straightforward manner have been assets to the company throughout his career. While we will miss him, we are happy that his primary reason for resigning is to spend additional time with his family, and we wish him the very best.” Baxter, who will continue working for the company as a consultant, joined Enron in 1991 and was chairman and CEO of Enron North America prior to being named chief strategy officer for Enron Corp. in June 2000 and vice chairman in October 2000.

Idaho Power Tuesday received the go-ahead from state regulators to immediately start recovering $168.3 million of the $227.4 million requested by the utility in its annual power cost adjustment. But any decision related to the remaining $59.1 million of Idaho Power’s request won’t come until after the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC) completes an investigation into several areas, including the activities of the utility’s non-regulated trading arm.

A group representing qualifying facility (QF) generators has called on FERC to immediately order California’s two troubled investor-owned utilities to provide “interconnection, scheduling, transmission and related services” to QF plants in California, and to “cease and desist” from carrying out actions that are blocking sales of QF power.

MRT said Thursday it is not accepting any nominations thatcreate a short imbalance on its system, effective immediately.Currently short customers are expected to correct their position bythe end of the month and remain in balance. The pipeline remindedno-notice customers that they may change their no-notice option andallow storage withdrawals to eliminate any imbalance.

Florida Gas Transmission said a Zone 1 constraint resulting fromhydrostatic testing immediately downstream of Station 4 in MatagordaCounty, TX will be completed by Thursday and it is accepting all Zone1 nominations for that gas day. The maintenance period, which beganOct. 20, 2000 and was originally scheduled to end Dec. 1, 2000, wasextended several times (see Daily GPI, Jan.24).