Involving

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s practices involving ex parte (off-the-record) communications are “fully consistent” with existing law, and in fact are “more stringent” than the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), said a noted legal expert last Monday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s practices involving ex parte (off-the-record) communications are “fully consistent” with existing law, and in fact are “more stringent” than the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), said a noted legal expert Monday.

The full potential of geothermal energy is not being realized in certain parts of the U.S. due to a “chicken and egg game” involving the way in which the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) handles leases, the executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) recently said.

FERC’s upcoming meeting Thursday is expected to be a blockbuster one, as the agency takes action on issues involving gas quality and the interchangeability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and traditional gas, a joint pipeline-producer petition for broader blanket certificate authority, the agency’s proposed storage rule and a host of new LNG projects and expansions.

Three congressional lawmakers from New York have called on the head of FERC to recuse himself from all matters involving the pending Broadwater Energy LLC liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to be located in Long Island Sound between Connecticut and Long Island, as well as an associated gas pipeline project.

Maintenance on Laguna Station’s #3 unit, previously scheduled for March 7-9, has been postponed to April, El Paso said. The ongoing force majeure involving repair of the #2 unit at Belen Station will continue until further notice, reducing San Juan Crossover capacity by 35 MMcf/d from a base capacity of 650 MMcf/d, the pipeline added.

CenterPoint Energy Inc. and indirect subsidiary CenterPoint Energy Resources Corp. (CERC) said Friday some transactions involving purchases and sales of natural gas within the gas distribution segment were overstated by $520 million in 2004 and by $430 million in the first nine months of 2005. The companies said the overstatements resulted from not properly eliminating consolidation of the two entities’ financial statements, and the affected results will be restated.

Transwestern will reduce WT-2 Station capacity by 120,000 MMBtu/d Thursday due to unplanned maintenance involving repair of a cooling tube. Ten points will be affected by the cut. WT-2 will return to normal capacity of 600,000 MMBut/d Friday.

FERC last Wednesday scheduled oral argument for Sept. 20 in an ongoing proceeding involving ISO New England’s (ISO-NE) locational installed capacity (LICAP) plan for the region. At the same time, the agency postponed LICAP implementation, if it proceeds, until no earlier than Oct. 1, 2006 instead of January 2006 as originally scheduled.