Ordered

In a move that marks the first recommendation of President Bush’s national energy policy to be implemented since the plan was recently unveiled, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham last Wednesday directed the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to undertake a strategic review of its energy efficiency research and development programs.

In a move that marks the first recommendation of President Bush’s national energy policy to be implemented since the plan was unveiled last week, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham yesterday directed the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to undertake a strategic review of its energy efficiency research and development programs.

FERC has ordered a formal, non-public investigation into the “apparent disclosure” to The New York Times of documents that were supposed to be sealed and protected as part of the California regulators’ complaint case against El Paso Natural Gas and affiliates.

FERC has ordered a formal, non-public investigation to be conducted into the “apparent disclosure” to The New York Times of documents that were supposed to be sealed and protected as part of the California regulators’ complaint case against El Paso Natural Gas and affiliates.

California’s financially troubled utilities dodged a bulletearlier this week when the Senate defeated an amendment that wouldhave required them to repay suppliers for all of the power theyreceived as a result of the Department of Energy orders during theDecember-through-February period, even if they go bankrupt.

Despite being re-ordered by the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission to comply with a Dec. 15 decision, California’s lameduck wholesale spot power market, the California Power Exchange(Cal-PX), continued Monday to resist recalculating its daily priceauctions since Jan. 1, pointing instead toward a Feb. 7 courthearing in a case it has brought against the FERC imposition of a$150/MWh price cap in the federal DC Court of Appeals.

With growing inadequacies in both gas and electricity deliverysystems in California, state regulators have ordered separatestatewide investigations of both with an emphasis on the gas sidein Sempra Energy’s territory in the southern end of the state.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is taking no chances in thewake of the Carlsbad, NM, natural gas pipeline explosion. It hasordered a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposalto refurbish and put back into service the Equilon Pipeline, a406-mile, 42-year old crude oil pipeline from Odessa, TX toBloomfield, NM.

The U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Pipeline Safety(OPS) has ordered all three of the pipes comprising El Paso NaturalGas’ 1 Bcf/d South Mainline from Texas to California to remainclosed until extensive tests can be done to ensure they are safe tooperate.