Later

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will convene a technical conference later this month that will examine interregional coordination issues between regional transmission organizations (RTOs). Although specifics on the conference remain somewhat sketchy, it appears that the issue of seams in the broader context of RTO formation will be a key topic of discussion at the gathering. The conference has been scheduled for June 19.

A state legislative proposal will be introduced later this week to start the political process for implementing the agreement (MOU) between California’s governor and Southern California Edison Co. to return the utility to credit-worthiness in exchange for selling its transmission system to the state and assuring below-market power supplies from the utility’s existing fleet of hydro, nuclear and coal-fired power plants.

FERC announced yesterday that it has scheduled a public conference for later this month to address the state of “current and projected” interstate gas pipeline capacity to the California market, as well as explore what is driving the higher gas prices in the southern end of the state.

A proposed new law to implement sections of the governor’s agreement (MOU) with Southern California Edison Co. will be offered later this week in the ongoing special session of the state legislature, Edison senior vice president Bob Foster said Tuesday in a regular conference call with utility bondholders. Foster characterized the state lawmakers’ attitude as “cautious,” but noted there is “no outright rejection” of the Edison MOU, which requires a state law to authorize California to buy the utility’s transmission assets and assign a portion of its rates to pay for state-backed bonds.

With linepack threatening to soar well above its maximum targetlevels later this week, Pacific Gas & Electric widenedTuesday’s customer-specific OFO into a systemwide Stage 3high-inventory OFO today. The OFO has penalties of $5/Dth forpositive daily imbalances exceeding a stringent 1% tolerance.

Later this month, a Nebraska district court will hear arguments from Kinder Morgan subsidiary KN Energy, which has charged several municipalities in the western part of the state with attempting to regulate the gas company’s rates by requiring it to pay into a state loan fund, and when it refused to pay the charge, enacting ordinances to not allow a surcharge on gas purchases.

Later this month, a Nebraska district court will hear argumentsfrom Kinder Morgan subsidiary KN Energy, which has charged severalmunicipalities in the western part of the state with attempting toregulate the gas company’s rates by requiring it to pay into astate loan fund, and when it refused to pay the charge, enactingordinances to not allow a surcharge on gas purchases.

Nevada’s governor last week delayed opening the state’selectricity market until no later than Sept. 1, 2001, choosing toestablish a bipartisan statewide committee to develop a new energypolicy for the state.

New Jersey’s Attorney General (AG) Office said yesterday it willfile by “no later than” Friday a petition seeking court review ofFERC’s decision awarding a certificate to Transcontinental GasPipeLine to proceed with the construction of a hotly-disputedpipeline expansion through the northern part of the state.