As the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prepared to act on its investigation into California’s charges of gas and electricity market manipulation, it ruled Friday it would release most of the company records submitted in the case on March 26 — the date scheduled for a decision — or later. The Commission’s issuance of the order Friday gives the companies time to press for injunctions against the release of confidential information.
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Major Shareholder to Mount Proxy Fight for El Paso
The largest individual shareholder of El Paso Corp. gave notice Tuesday that he will seek to unseat the financially troubled company’s board of directors at the upcoming shareholder meeting.
Duke, Williams Subpoenaed in U.S. Grand Jury Probe in San Francisco
Duke Energy and Williams confirmed Friday that they received individual subpoenas from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco as part of an ongoing federal grand jury investigation of natural gas and electricity suppliers in California. It was unclear how many other merchant energy companies, besides Duke and Williams received the summons Friday. The workings of the grand jury, of course, are secret.
MMS Pays Out Record $656M in Mineral Revenues
A record $656 million in mineral revenues was released to individual states last week by the U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) as their share of revenues collected from oil, gas and other mineral development in federal lands outside their boundaries or in federal waters adjacent to their shores. If price and production trends continue on their current pace, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said “this will be an all-time record year.”
Industry Briefs
The Energy Information Administration has a new web site with aninteractive map on natural gas choice programs nationwide. The mapshows programs for residential customers in individual states rangefrom full choice (in New Mexico, New York and West Virginia, withan additional nine states in the implementation phase) to test or”pilot” programs in 11 states that provide a choice of supplier forsome customers. An additional 11 states are considering action oncustomer choice, while 17 states have thus far taken no action. EIAfound consumer reaction to choice has been mixed. In some states,such as Nebraska, 97% of the eligible residential and commercialcustomers are electing to choose a supplier. In other states,however, such as Indiana and New Jersey, the participation is 2% orless of those eligible. The map does not provide complete data oncustomer choice or nationwide totals, but it does provide importantinformation on gas unbundling in each state. An EIA spokeswomansaid the administration plans to continue updating the site andintends to release a summary page soon that is expected to shownationwide residential participation levels at about 17% of thoseeligible. To find out more about the status of choice programs ineach of the 50 states and the District of Columbia visit the EIAweb site at: http://www.eia.doe.gov.