Legislature

A House committee of the Rhode Island Legislature voted out a bill Wednesday that “essentially would make it impossible” for tankers laden with liquefied natural gas (LNG) to navigate the Narragansett Bay and Sakonnet River on their way to the proposed Weaver’s Cove LNG import terminal in Fall River, MA, a spokeswoman for the bill’s sponsor said.

After a round of negotiations and proposed amendments during the state legislature’s first week back from its summer recess last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “million solar roofs” proposal (SB 1) and several other major energy proposals face a critical test this Wednesday in the state lower house Assembly Appropriations Committee. What form the proposals will take, and who is supporting them, was still unknown last Friday.

The Oklahoma legislature has handily approved a bill to remove the price cap of $5.00 for gas and $30 for oil on deep wells eligible for exemption from the state’s gross production tax.

The Oklahoma legislature has handily approved a bill to remove the price cap of $5.00 for gas and $30 for oil on deep wells eligible for exemption from the state’s gross production tax.

A proposed state law submitted last week to the California legislature would punish industry sources providing phony natural gas pricing information to major national industry published indices. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) would be required to use only natural gas price indices determined by the regulators to be “reliable and verifiable.”

A proposed new state law submitted last Wednesday to the California legislature would punish industry sources providing phony natural gas pricing information to major national industry published indices. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) would be required to use only natural gas price indices determined by the regulators to be “reliable and verifiable.”

Contrary to skepticism raised in an ongoing probe by the California legislature, the nation’s largest municipal utility has done nothing wrong in its wholesale power sales over the past two years, and the state asked for a new short-term power deal for this summer, according to Los Angeles Department of Water and Power General Manager David Wiggs, who spoke last Thursday at a media briefing in Washington, DC.

Not wilting under the public spotlight so far but faced with heightened public criticism from state elected officials, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) tried hard last week to stand its ground on information about its power trading in late 2000 that on the surface appears to contradict testimony the utility’s representatives gave under oath to legislators in May.

Supporting the current CEO of the state’s electric transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, and the ultimate need to make it a regional, multi-state entity, the state operator’s former stakeholder board chair, Jan Smutny-Jones, was among the energy industry representatives subjected to public depositions by a California senate investigative committee last week in a process that will continue later this month with further hearings. Subsequent hearings are suppose to look at some of the grid operator’s market practices, particularly allegations that it is giving “preferential treatment” to the state power-buying agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR).