Landscape

Despite the current bearish landscape in natural gas market fundamentals, Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins said he sees a “continued rebound in gas prices” going into 2007 as “the natural gas overhang experienced throughout the injection season will dissipate.” As a result the analyst’s group is still predicting $10 Henry Hub gas for the entirety of 2007.

High natural gas prices and uncertainty about the regulatory landscape from state to state make it difficult for distributed generation to take hold as a means of forestalling future transmission line upgrades without first gaining utility sponsorship . Most installations don’t pencil out on a strictly on-site power-production basis, according to a San Diego-based consultant who talked with NGI/Power Market Today last Tuesday.

With a growing interest in changing the state’s energy landscape, California lawmakers this week will examine three major proposals, one that would create a new regulatory body out of parts of three existing agencies, another that would eliminate the last vestiges of the state’s 1996 electric restructuring law and third dealing with gas price indices. Hearings are set in the Assembly and Senate for Wednesday and Thursday for the respective bills.

With a growing interest in changing the state’s energy landscape in the post-2000/2001 crisis, California lawmakers this week will further examine two separate and major proposals for establishing a new foundation for industry matters. Sacramento observers are unsure of the ultimate fate of the two proposals — one in the state Senate and the other in the lower house Assembly.

Two certainties prevailed in California’s blighted energy landscape Thursday: wholesale power bills are getting bigger and state regulators are trying harder to salvage Gov. Gray Davis’ deal with Southern California Edison Co. But in the state legislature from which the ultimate solutions must come there was growing skepticism, despite a series of meetings with the governor earlier in the week.

California’s political, regulatory and economic landscape was altered last week by the financial earthquake from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s bankruptcy filing on Friday in San Francisco. The bankruptcy adds a whole new dimension to the state’s continuing energy crisis, putting ever-more dire economic consequences on the electricity supply/price crunch that gripped the state since last summer.

California’s political, regulatory and economic landscape was altered last week by the financial earthquake from Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s bankruptcy filing on Friday in San Francisco. The bankruptcy adds a whole new dimension to the state’s continuing energy crisis, putting ever-more dire economic consequences on the electricity supply/price crunch that gripped the state since last summer.

The landscape of projects and programs to move Canadian gasarriving in Chicago on to the East changed again last week. KinderMorgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) and TexasEastern Transmission (TETCO) are targeting the market with areciprocal capacity lease arrangement.

The Midwest utility landscape should expect radical changessoon, as two major mergers have cleared all regulatory approvalsand are closing in on completion.