Limits

Watching the Wall Street credit meltdown and its aftermath, California regulators Thursday expanded financing limits on the state’s two largest private-sector utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).

Three of Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers introduced federal legislation Thursday to increase the amount of acreage on the Roan Plateau that would be off-limits to energy development.

Three of Colorado’s Democratic lawmakers introduced federal legislation Thursday to increase the amount of acreage on the Roan Plateau that would be off-limits to energy development.

As mandated by the state’s 2006 law, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) Feb. 8 released their joint recommendation for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission limits in the electricity and natural gas sectors, proposing a mix of mandatory regulatory requirements and a cap-and-trade system. Ultimately the California Air Resources Board (CARB) will establish the standards.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, last Tuesday upheld FERC’s 2005 policy statement that limits interstate pipelines’ collateral requirements for non-creditworthy shippers to an amount equal to three months of reservation charges.

A federal appeals court in Washington, DC, Tuesday upheld FERC’s 2005 policy statement that limits interstate pipelines’ collateral requirements for non-creditworthy shippers to an amount equal to three months of reservation charges.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday issued an order raising the dollar limits for natural gas projects that are constructed under the blanket-certificate program during 2007.

FERC Tuesday granted Tennessee Gas Pipeline a waiver of its prior-notice cost limits for an offshore Louisiana lateral project, qualifying it for the higher cost ceiling under the agency’s blanket certificate regulations that went into effect after the project was authorized. The El Paso pipeline sought the waiver as the cost of the project jumped to $35.8 million (and is expected to climb further) from the original cost estimate of $10.6 million.

Breaching the upper limits of its recent trading range, December natural gas futures recorded a new high of $8.380 Tuesday afternoon before going off of the board at $8.318, up 32 cents. The Canadian cold air mass over the Midwest and West that is expected to make its way into the East by late in the week also kept other contracts strong. The January natural gas futures contract climbed 20.2 cents on the day to close at $8.559.