Odds

Although pipelines and producers are often at odds on major issues before FERC, the groups are “steadfast in our mutual support for reforms” to promote the construction of interstate natural gas pipeline mainline expansions, certain storage facilities and takeaway facilities for liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals, top officials of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) said in a joint letter to FERC Tuesday.

Christine Tezak, an analyst with Stanford Washington Research Group, last Wednesday dropped her odds for multi-emissions legislation backed by the Bush Administration being enacted into law this year to roughly 1 in 10 after the measure (S. 131) deadlocked in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on a bipartisan vote of 9 to 9.

While the odds of the U.S. getting hit by another blackout on the scale of the one last year on Aug. 14 appear to be “a little less likely” as the country approaches the one-year anniversary of that historic event, David Brown, a vice-president at NUS Consulting, believes that there hasn’t been adequate follow through on a final report examining the outage completed by a joint U.S.-Canada task force earlier this year.

As anticipated, the bears regained firm control of the cash market Friday following a flat to mildly softer Thursday. They had little trouble in doing so, aided by the previous day’s screen dive in response to the storage report, unseasonably mild weather throughout much of the East, and the slump in industrial load that typically accompanies a weekend. Even a weekend burst of highs reaching the low 90s in parts of the Northeast was unable to avert drops of 20 cents-plus at regional citygates.

In what would be a major blow to Alaska officials, especially Gov. Tony Knowles who has pinned the remainder of his term toward getting an Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline, major producers indicated this week that because the cost would be less, they now favor a North Slope pipeline that would move north, through the Beaufort Sea, instead of across the state.

In yet another irony to the California energy foibles, while state officials are scrambling to expand natural gas transmission and storage capabilities in the state, one of Southern California Gas Co.’s most urban-based underground storage facilities is under siege from opponents of a massive coastal mixed-use residential/commercial development between Marina del Rey, CA, and a 50-year-old gas storage operation.

The Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) both agree there is a bottleneck where the interstate and intrastate grids meet in California. However, the two agencies are miles apart on the size of that difference.

The Energy Information Agency (EIA) and the California Energy Commission (CEC) both agree there is a bottleneck where the interstate and intrastate grids meet in California. However, the two agencies are miles apart on the size of that bottleneck.

Several key players in the energy industry last Monday said that the odds favor Congress being able to get a comprehensive energy bill on President Bush’s desk for his signature by the end of this year. But at least one participant in a Washington, D.C., press briefing on the Bush administration’s new national energy policy argued that the real question is whether such legislation will truly help to solve the nation’s energy crisis or instead will prove to be little more than window dressing designed to boost the fortunes of politicians back home.