Members

Oregon can expect higher natural gas prices again this coming winter, the three members of the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) were told Thursday at the regulators’ annual Natural Gas Outlook meeting, which this year was titled “Uncertainty and Volatility.” Even though last winter was mild and storage is brimming already, pressures in the state’s traditional supply basins to move gas East, and other factors keep upward pressure on wholesale prices, a variety of industry representatives told the regulators.

Oregon can expect higher natural gas prices again this coming winter, the three members of the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) were told Thursday at the regulators’ annual Natural Gas Outlook meeting, which this year was titled “Uncertainty and Volatility.” Even though last winter was mild and storage is brimming already, pressures in the state’s traditional supply basins to move gas East, and other factors keep upward pressure on wholesale prices, a variety of industry representatives told the regulators.

The Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee unanimously approved the nominations of Philip Moeller and Jon Wellinghoff to become members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Moeller currently is head of Wisconsin-based utility Alliant Energy’s Washington, DC, office. Wellinghoff is an attorney with Nevada-based law firm Beckley Singleton.

Three members of Wyoming’s congressional delegation have expressed concern with a FERC administrative law judge’s (ALJ) initial decision that recommends a significantly lower return on equity (ROE) for a Wyoming-to-California pipeline, Kern River Gas Transmission.

Members of the jury in the trial of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, who had been together for four months, agreed to talk with the media about their deliberations on Thursday. They all said they didn’t buy Lay’s and Skilling’s testimony nor the evidence against them.

Four members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation sent a letter to the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday expressing their opposition to the controversial proposed Weaver’s Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to be located in Fall River, MA.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) and five other members of the panel introduced legislation Thursday that seeks to tame natural gas and crude oil prices by strengthening antitrust enforcement and bolstering competition in the energy industry.

While some energy industry members likely wish that so much gas-fired power generation capacity had not been built — industrial gas consumers, for instance — the fact is that it’s here to stay, and the gas-power convergence is still very much with us.

While some members of Congress want to hand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more oversight of natural gas markets, at least one CFTC commissioner says expanded powers are unnecessary and could harm the industry.