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In a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman James Newsome last Monday, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) berated the CFTC for continuing its fight against legislation that would allow more regulatory oversight of the over-the-counter (OTC) energy market.

In a letter to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman James Newsome on Monday, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) berated the CFTC for continuing its fight against legislation that would allow more regulatory oversight of the over-the-counter (OTC) energy market.

Jerome “Jerry” James McGrath, 81, a retired former president of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), died on Tuesday of cancer at his home in Chevy Chase, MD. McGrath served as an executive with INGAA for 20 years. After an extensive career as a natural gas industry lawyer, he was employed by INGAA in 1968 as executive vice president, general counsel and secretary. In 1978, he was promoted to president and served in the capacity until his retirement from the association in 1988. His tenure included leading INGAA and its interstate pipeline members through the challenges associated with the wellhead decontrol of natural gas and the beginnings of the pipeline industry’s transition from merchant sellers of natural gas to unbundled transportation providers. Mirant announced that effective May 3 M. Michele Burns, 46, will be joining the company as executive vice president and CFO. Burns will assume lead responsibility for the company’s financial restructuring. She will report to Marce Fuller, Mirant’s CEO. Burns brings more than 23 years of experience in corporate finance and accounting to Mirant, having served as executive vice president and CFO at Delta Air Lines and as partner at Arthur Andersen LLP. “As one of the nation’s most well-respected CFOs, she has the experience and skill to lead our financial restructuring, and play a key role in enabling Mirant to emerge from Chapter 11,” said Fuller. In her career at Delta, Burns is credited with stabilizing the company’s finances immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, then leveraging Delta’s business unit, technology and supply chain strategies to reduce costs by over $2.5 billion.

Ray L. Hunt, currently chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Hunt Oil Co., has relinquished the chairman role but will retain his CEO title, the company announced. James B. Jennings, 63, the current president, was named the new chairman. Jennings has been president since 1999, and he is expected to continue to oversee development of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a new line of business for Hunt, which has LNG operations in Peru and Yemen. Stephen C. Hurley, 54, was promoted to president, and he will assume day-to-day responsibilities for company operations, including exploration, production and marketing. Hurley joined Hunt in 2001 after Hunt acquired Chieftain International Inc., where he had been COO.

In a direct plea to House-Senate negotiators on the energy bill, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO James Mulva on Thursday called on conferees to “reconsider” their objections to providing Alaska gas producers with subsidies to offset the risks associated with building a proposed pipeline from the North Slope to the Lower 48 states.

Raymond James analysts have an “unusually high degree of confidence” that domestic natural gas-driven stock prices will move up in an “unusually short period of time,” and now believe that there is a better than 75% probability that gas leveraged energy stocks will move up significantly in the next six to eight weeks.

Energy consultant James Wilson of LECG LLC’s Washington, DC, office said he agreed with FERC’s staff’s conclusion last week that there probably was gas market manipulation during autumn 2000 to early summer 2001. However, he believes staff provided no evidence for the additional claim that published price indices were inaccurate or manipulated. Also, Wilson said it would be hard to distinguish the impact of manipulation vs. price increases due to market forces (see Daily GPI, Aug. 15).

Senate leadership canned an attempt by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK) to force a vote on the adoption of energy legislation as amendments to the defense authorization bill. Inhofe had submitted Sen. Frank Murkowski’s energy bill and the House energy legislation (H.R. 4) as prospective amendments to the $340 billion defense spending bill.

Senate leadership canned an attempt by Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-OK) to force a vote on the adoption of energy legislation as amendments to the defense authorization bill. Inhofe had submitted Sen. Frank Murkowski’s energy bill and the House energy legislation (H.R. 4) as prospective amendments to the $340 billion defense spending bill.