Legislative

State and industry officials last Tuesday told a California legislative committee hearing that parts of Southern California may face blackouts this summer if unusually hot weather is experienced. The latest forecast showed a 1.5%, or 2,000 MW, supply shortfall in periods of peak demand in September, according to testimony given to a special meeting of the state Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee in Sacramento.

With solutions underway on the regulatory, legislative and financial fronts, PG&E Corp. and its combination utility are optimistic that they will reach several key milestones by mid-year.

With solutions underway on the regulatory, legislative and financial fronts, PG&E Corp. and its combination utility are optimistic that they will reach several key milestones by mid-year.

With 1,000 Louisiana chemical plant jobs lost in 2003 alone, Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Monday called on the nation’s governors to press the federal government to form a “coordinated response” to historically high natural gas prices. At the same, top energy lawmakers engaged in a war of words in a Capitol Hill newspaper over the fate of the stalled Senate energy bill.

While consumer issues have already turned up the regulatory heat, proposed legislation promises to light a fire under Colorado’s major utilities, requiring them to step up energy savings and conservation programs. Included in early versions of a bill backed by a mixture of environmental and energy efficiency groups is a requirement to reduce the average retail utility customer’s energy use by 0.5% annually for the next 15 years.

Legislative language that would have given the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) greater oversight over wholesale natural gas prices was stricken from a broad amendment on electricity that was unveiled last Wednesday by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as the full Senate prepared to return to debate on the energy bill this week.

A legislative proposal recently floated by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) to push back implementation of FERC’s standard market design (SMD) plan for U.S. wholesale power markets to 2008 “does not have sufficient votes” in the U.S. Senate and “it does not have my support,” Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) told reporters last week.

A California Senate panel voted out a measure Tuesday to make the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) into an elective body with each of its five commissioners elected from a separate state district. Industrial customers opposed the measure, which would be a constitutional amendment (SCR 6), saying it would make regulatory decisions even more political. But state utilities so far have voiced no opinion on the bill.

A California Senate panel voted out a measure Tuesday to make the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) into an elective body with each of its five commissioners elected from a separate state district. Industrial customers opposed the measure, which would be a constitutional amendment (SCR 6), saying it would make regulatory decisions even more political. But state utilities so far have voiced no opinion on the bill.