Meets

Marking another step in the long journey to get the shuttered 935 MW Davis Besse nuclear power plant back online, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) officials last week said that a recent pressure test at the plant fully met all of its objectives, including validation of the integrity of the bottom of the plant’s reactor vessel and of the reactor coolant system.

Black Hills Corp. announced last Tuesday it is initiating an internal investigation of its past trade reporting practices in response to a request for information from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Black Hills Corp. announced Tuesday it is initiating an internal investigation of its past trade reporting practices in response to a request for information from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Representatives from natural gas pipeline companies, gas associations and Mid Atlantic power grid operator PJM Interconnection met recently to begin discussions about the impact of adding more natural gas-fired power plants in PJM’s territory. But news of the talks came just as analysts at Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) issued a report questioning whether the bulk of generation development underway in PJM will ever come to fruition.

Columbia Gas of Virginia’s proposed revision of its Rate Schedule TS-1 and TS-2 would negatively affect the way gas is transported, while harming competition within the state, according to concerned customers in a hearing earlier in the month. The hearing on Sept. 3 in front of the Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) found “unanimous opposition” from 15 Columbia customers, according to Compass Energy Services Inc., a marketer affected by Columbia’s action.

Columbia Gas of Virginia’s proposed revision of its Rate Schedule TS-1 and TS-2 would negatively affect the way gas is transported, while harming competition within the state, according to concerned customers in a hearing last week. The hearing held Sept. 3 before the Virginia State Corporation Commission (VSCC) found “unanimous opposition” from 15 Columbia customers, according to Compass Energy Services Inc., a marketer affected by Columbia’s action.

The Senate Finance Committee meets today for a markup of a $13.5 billion energy tax package, which will likely be the only piece of the entire comprehensive energy legislation (S 1766) to go through a committee markup. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) halted a markup on the energy bill by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last October.

Andrew Fastow, the 39-year-old former CFO for Enron Corp. who has become a central figure in the company’s dubious off-balance sheet transactions and earnings discrepancies that precipitated a stunning bankruptcy in six weeks time, held a telecast press conference from his attorney’s office in New York City, to quell rumors that he was “missing in action.” However, Fastow was there in body only, with his high-powered attorney, David Boies, doing most of the talking.

As Gov. Gray Davis made the rounds in Washington and New Yorkseeking support for California’s plan to buy and run powertransmission lines, Moody’s sounded a warning that the plan couldfalter if consumers balk at the price tag at the same time powershortages hit this summer. “Absence of progress on the state’sproposed solutions to the California power crisis could worsen thepower crisis and begin to seriously threaten the health of theeconomy,” Moody’s said in a report issued after the market closedTuesday.