Monopoly

El Paso Merchant Energy, an affiliate of El Paso Natural Gas, isreaping “monopoly rents in excess of 7,000% higher than the justand reasonable rate approved by the Commission for its regulatedsibling,” Southern California Edison told the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission last week.

El Paso Merchant Energy, an affiliate of El Paso Natural Gas, isreaping “monopoly rents in excess of 7,000% higher than the justand reasonable rate approved by the Commission for its regulatedsibling,” Southern California Edison told the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission last week.

The benefits of deregulating the electric power industry may be”deferred” — or may not be realized at all — if monopolyutilities are left unchecked to exercise market power in arestructured marketplace, according to an FTC staff report.

Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) proved last week thatit’s not going to give up its monopoly access to the rapidlygrowing Florida market without a fight. The Citrus Corp. subsidiaryfiled its second pipeline expansion application with FERC in a yearin an attempt to head off competition from several proposedgreenfield pipelines, including Williams Companies’ Buccaneerproject, Coastal’s Gulfstream pipeline and Duke Energy’s Sawgrassproject (see NGI, Oct. 4, and Oct. 19).

Florida Gas Transmission Company (FGT) proved yesterday that it’snot going to give up its monopoly access to the rapidly growingFlorida market without a fight. The Citrus Corp. subsidiary filed itssecond pipeline expansion application with FERC in a year in anattempt to head off competition from several proposed greenfieldpipelines, including Williams Companies’ Buccaneer project, Coastal’sGulfstream pipeline and Duke Energy’s Sawgrass project (see Daily GPI,July 12,Oct. 1 and Oct. 15).

California, the trend-setter in electric restructuring, isexpected to take it to the next level with a “decision-making”investigation starting this fall on distributed generation and themonster issue lurking behind it — the sacrosanct localdistribution franchises.

Increasing competitive pressure inside traditional monopolyutility market territories has triggered somewhat of a revival ofinvestment diversification by gas and electric utilities. But theseinvestments are not what they’re cracked up to be, according toenergy consulting firm Metzler Services, a subsidiary of Metzler&amp Associates. Non-core investments, including internationalventures, did not payoff over the year ended last September,Metzler calculated in its third quarter Flashreport, released lastweek.

Advising that pipeline monopoly power has increased with theconsolidation which has been going on over the last several years,Rebecca McDonald, an executive with Amoco and chairman this year ofthe Natural Gas Supply Assoc., warned against a reduction inregulatory oversight.

Midcoast Interstate Transmission’s efforts to continue itsmonopoly control of the pipeline transportation market in northernAlabama fell by the wayside last week when FERC rejected its twocontroversial project proposals citing disinterest on the part ofshippers.