Passes

Dynegy Inc.’s CEO said Thursday that the company is well on its way to a successful self-restructuring by paring down its debt $1.5 billion and reducing collateral needs more than 50% in the past 12 months. However, said Bruce Williamson, “we’re not done.”

Dynegy Inc.’s CEO said Thursday that the company is well on its way to a successful self-restructuring by paring down its debt $1.5 billion and reducing collateral needs more than 50% in the past 12 months. However, said Bruce Williamson, “we’re not done.”

Ending six weeks of arduous and sometimes rancorous debate, the Democrat-led Senate last Thursday passed sweeping energy legislation, the Energy Policy Act of 2002, that dangles “carrots” in front of pipeline companies to build an Alaskan natural gas transportation system, gives small producers multi-billion dollar tax breaks to spur domestic oil and gas production, increases renewable fuel use and production, and offers reforms to further enhance competition in the electricity markets.

Ending weeks of haggling over critical energy legislation, the Republican-led Senate threw in the towel last Thursday night, substituting last year’s Democrat-crafted energy bill for this year’s legislation and passing it by a vote of 84-14. The first time around — in April 2002 — the same bill cleared the Senate by a bipartisan vote of 88-11 (see NGI, April 29). Last week’s vote, which sets the stage for Congress to vote out the first piece of major energy legislation in 11 years, came as Congress prepared to leave for its August recess.

The House of Representatives on Friday passed by a wide margin broad-based energy legislation, which one House Republican leader called “the most important energy bill in the last 50 years.” But a dispirited Democratic lawmaker said it was a Republican-crafted bill that was “jammed down the throats” of others in Congress.

The House of Representatives on Friday passed by a wide margin broad-based energy legislation, which one House Republican leader called “the most important energy bill in the last 50 years.” But a dispirited Democratic lawmaker said it was a Republican-crafted bill that was “jammed down the throats” of others in Congress.

Only three months into the new year, El Paso Corp. said it has already completed or entered into more than 50% of the company’s targeted $3.4 billion asset sales goal for 2003.

Pipeline safety legislation, separated out from the wreckage of the broad energy bill, made it through the Senate Wednesday night as stand-alone legislation (H.R. 3609). Proponents of the legislation were expecting the House also would vote it out before winding up its session Thursday night.

The House last week voted overwhelmingly to approve an amendment to an Interior Department spending bill that would block new oil and natural gas drilling on 36 disputed leases off the central coast of California.