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The uphill run of the overall market was still going for themost part Wednesday, but at a considerably slower pace than the daybefore as several areas anticipated at least a brief reprieve fromsevere winter weather.

The retreat of Northeast citygates from last week’s lofty levelswas still under way Monday, but the rate of decline was slowing.Otherwise, except for softening at Rockies and PacificNorthwest/western Canada points and moderate firmness at Midwestcitygates; flat to slightly lower pricing dominated the west of themarket.

For the most part, late-December incremental prices continued todrift lower by small amounts Tuesday in quiet activity as tradersincreasing focused their attention on January business. Evenbidweek was still dragging, complained a Midcontinent producer;”there’s lot of talking, but few actual deals.”

While most regulated companies have called a cease-fire at FERCduring the holidays, El Paso Natural Gas and its principaldetractors — Amoco Production and Burlington Resources Oil &Gas — are hard at work. For starters, the pipeline has asked theCommission to give it until February to submit a proposal forrevising its controversial capacity-allocation procedures.

Absent anything in the way of new influences from weather orfutures, most of the market went into a holding pattern Thursday.Mild softness permeated much of the general flatness as what wasconsidered a bullish storage injection report Wednesday afternoonfailed to provide support for cash prices. Northeast citygates fellabout a nickel, resuming their decline after a brief respite fromthe softness that had prevailed since the first of the month.

As a result of one of the most extensive environmentalinvestigations ever, federal authorities last week filed a stringof lawsuits and other actions against 32 coal-fired utility plantsin the South and Midwest for allegedly failing to installpollution-control equipment when major facility upgrades were made.These actions, they said, contributed significantly to the higherlevels of nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SOx) andparticulate matter emissions over the years.

While yesterday’s price weakness did not surprise many traders,the size of some of the declines exceeded expectations. Near recordhigh temperatures caused major drops in the Midcontinent, andforecasts of hot weather combined with a dropping futures screen toweaken the Northeast, Gulf Coast and western markets.

In one of the most aggressive environmental enforcement actionsever, the federal government yesterday filed a series of lawsuitsagainst 32 coal-fired electric utility plants in the South andMidwest alleging that they made illegal modifications to theirfacilities, which resulted in increased nitrogen oxide (NOx) andsulfur dioxide (SOx) emissions over the years.

Following the lead of an essentially flat screen during most ofthe cash trading period, the spot market leveled off Wednesday,with small upticks outweighing the few small declines. An Arcticcold front was moving eastward toward the Midwest and eventually tothe Northeast, making citygates tend to rise a bit more thanproduction-area points.