Mandate

Lawmakers meeting last Thursday to craft a comprehensive energy bill reached a compromise related to pipeline integrity inspections under which facilities with the highest risk factors will be given priority for completing inspections within a five-year period.

The California Public Utilities Commission Thursday decided totemporarily mandate that large electricity customers who have optedfor price breaks by voluntarily agreeing to be curtailed duringextreme peak-demand periods remain on their interruptible scheduleat least through March 31, 2001. The regulators took the action tocoincide with a statewide effort now underway to beef up thecurtailment program before next summer to have more voluntarycurtailed load in place if needed to avoid rolling blackouts duringpeak-demand times.

By Congressional mandate, Uncle Sam is supposed to get out ofthe utility business in the first few years of the new century. Howthe government can accomplish the feat at hundreds of militaryinstallations around the globe will become a little clearer by theend of this year when a current round of “requests for interest”(RFI) should be submitted by various private sector companies. Noone has an overall price tag on the facilities worldwide, but itprobably will be in the billions of dollars. There are thousands ofmiles of gas piping, water conduits and electrical lines to besold.

By Congressional mandate, Uncle Sam is supposed to get out ofthe utility business in the first few years of the new century. Howthe government can accomplish the feat at hundreds of militaryinstallations around the globe will become a little clearer by theend of this year when a current round of “requests for interest”(RFI) should be submitted by various private sector companies. Noone has an overall price tag on the facilities worldwide, but itprobably will be in the billions of dollars. There are thousands ofmiles of gas piping, water conduits and electrical lines to besold.