Members

A House subcommittee last week passed a resolution citing threemembers of a public watchdog group for refusing to respond toquestions about payments they made to two federal officialsinvolved in oil royalty policy.

The members of the New York Mercantile Exchange voted 97.5% infavor of a demutualization plan yesterday that will make the exchangethe first in New York to convert from a not-for-profit membershipstructure under New York law to a for-profit organization underDelaware law (see Daily GPI, May 5). Thedemutualization plan calls for the equity in the exchange to remainwith the seat-owners of its Nymex Division. “Today’s approval, is justthe first step in repositioning the Exchange as a 21st centurybusiness enterprise that will create and pursue profitable newopportunities, react rapidly and decisively in an increasinglycompetitive marketplace, and explore interest by outside investors,”said Exchange Chairman Daniel Rappaport. The plan has already receivedapproval from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Exchangeanticipates approval shortly from the Commodity Futures TradingCommission. It is also seeking a favorable tax ruling from theInternal Revenue Service. A new stock-holding company named NymexHoldings, Inc., will be formed to own all of the economic interestsand most of the voting control in the for-profit membershipcorporation. Each existing Nymex Division membership will be convertedinto one share of common stock in Nymex Holdings. The Exchange is thelargest physical commodity exchange in the world, with volume reachingclose to 110 million contracts in 1999.

In a move to improve organization and reduce overlap, AquilaEnergy laid off all 34 members of its industrial gas sales team.Their work will be picked up by Aquila’s commercial gas sales team,located in Columbus, OH.

Atlanta Gas Light Co. (AGL) responded harshly yesterday to a report filed Tuesday by members of the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) adversary staff, heating up an already steamy debate over AGL’s rates.

The role the Natural Gas Supply Association “provides is unique,and our members haven’t given us any indication that they areanything but pleased,” said Rebecca McDonald, this year’s chair ofthe organization and the future senior vice president of global gasmarketing for BP-Amoco. McDonald was questioned by NGI aboutpersistent rumors that NGSA, which originally was created topromote the decontrol of natural gas, would be disbanded and itsfunctions rolled into the American Petroleum Institute. McDonaldsaid the two organizations address very different issues, with APIfocusing on upstream oil and gas and NGSA involved mainly indownstream activities. “NGSA has done a good job with a difficulttask.”

After counseling from some of its board members, the CaliforniaIndependent System Operator (ISO) has decided not to seek relieffrom the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for an unprecedentedprice spike it experienced July 9 for reserve power in California’srestructured electricity markets, according to an ISO spokesperson.

FERC is expected to announce the long-awaited outcome of itssweeping FERC First review to staff members at various “townmeetings” within the Commission beginning this Wednesday, but it’sunclear if the results will be publicly disclosed this week.

Three members of the Wisconsin Legislature told FERC this weekthey would not be supporting the Viking Voyageur project unlesssignificant safety and evironmental modifications were made.Included among the modifications are thicker pipeline in ruralareas rather than just urban areas, automatic or remote shutoffvalves every five miles rather than the planned manual shut-offvalves every 20 miles, use of technology that minimizes the noisecreated by the Hancock Compressor Station, additional pipelineprotection at certain locations so large trucks can be driven overthe line, placement of the line away from residential and schoolareas in Wautoma, routing across farmland in a way that does notimpact irrigation or drainage, and giving property owners the rightto decide where the pipeline should be placed.