Internal

A Pacific Northwest business-labor coalition asked the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tuesday to examine the nonprofit, tax-exempt status of the environmental organization Columbia Riverkeeper (CRK) for allegedly working covertly in a recent anti-liquefied natural gas (LNG) local election. Energy Action Northwest filed a complaint against CRK and asked the IRS to launch an investigation.

A ranking House Republican Wednesday accused the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of suppressing an internal report that didn’t support the agency’s position that greenhouse gases (GHG) contribute to air pollution and endanger public health.

One of the three major proponents of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Oregon produced an internal Oregon Public Utilities Commission (PUC) memo sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski that counters to some extent an earlier assessment by the state’s energy department that LNG is unnecessary. The report by the Oregon Department of Energy said the need for LNG could be precluded by added Rockies supplies and climate change-induced energy efficiency and renewable steps (see NGI, May 19).

One of the three major proponents of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Oregon late last Friday produced an internal Oregon Public Utilities Commission (PUC) memo sent to Gov. Ted Kulongoski that counters to some extent an earlier assessment by the state’s energy department that LNG is unnecessary. The report by the Oregon Department of Energy said the need for LNG could be precluded by added Rockies supplies and climate change-induced energy efficiency and renewable steps (see Daily GPI, May 15).

EnCana Corp.’s strategy to divide and conquer, which apparently came after three years of internal debate, drew an enthusiastic cheer from investors and energy analysts Monday, sending the company’s share price to a new high and setting off rumors that one or both of new entities could be attractive takeover targets (see related story).

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) last Wednesday called for an internal Interior Department investigation into a recently obtained e-mail from a Utah lobbyist that he believes suggests that agency officials may have conspired behind closed doors to “fix” new land-use plans to assure more oil and natural gas development on wilderness-quality lands in the state.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) has called for an internal Interior Department investigation into a recently obtained e-mail from a Utah lobbyist that he believes suggests that agency officials may have conspired behind closed doors to “fix” new land-use plans to assure more oil and natural gas development on wilderness-quality lands in the state.

Trailblazer declared a force majeure at its compressor station 602 in Lincoln County, NB on Monday. The station experienced an unexpected outage due to an internal electrical failure on one of its compressor units. The estimated duration of the outage is four weeks. Effective on the Intraday 1 cycle for Tuesday and continuing until further notice, secondary out-of-path and ITS/AOR volumes will not be available for scheduling. Trailblazer estimates that 800,000 Dth of firm capacity will be available during the outage. Therefore, nominated primary firm and secondary in-the-path firm transportation will be scheduled pro rata based on the shipper’s primary contract MDQ in accordance with Trailblazer’s tariff. Trailblazer expects to be able to confirm 94.5% of total contracted MDQ for primary firm transportation.

The federal Internal Revenue Service earlier this month sued Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM), alleging the utility received $4.2 million in 1998 and 1999 income tax refunds and claimed even more based on accounting methods that the IRS now contends were bogus. The allegations were made in a lawsuit filed in a federal district court, noting that PNM supposedly made the claims on the advice of its accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP.