Policymakers

Major policymakers will speak about national energy policy issues at a major conference on Tuesday (Sept. 24) to be hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. Scheduled speakers will include FERC Chairman Pat Wood, Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. The conference, “Energy Summit 2002, Ensuring America’s Energy Supply,” will run from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Chamber headquarters, located at 1615 H St. NW. For further information, parties should contract Chris Merida at (202) 463-5648 or go to www.uschamber.com. Chamber members will be charged $325 to attend the event; non-members, $425. The price at the door will be $500.

Major policymakers will speak about national energy policy issues at a major conference on Sept. 24 to be hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. Scheduled speakers will include FERC Chairman Pat Wood, Rep. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), chairman of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. The conference, “Energy Summit 2002, Ensuring America’s Energy Supply,” will run from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.at the Chamber headquarters, located at 1615 H St. NW. For further information, parties should contract Chris Merida at (202) 463-5648 or go to www.uschamber.com. Chamber members will be charged $325 to attend the event; non-members, $425. The price at the door will be $500.

Contrary to the impression left by state policymakers nowanxious for California to buy the state’s three investor-ownedutilities’ portion of the state transmission grid, the overworked,congestion-plagued system has had more than 100 upgrade projectstotaling more than $1 billion under way in the past three yearssince the state-chartered independent operator (Cal-ISO) assumedcontrol of the private-sector assets. The utility owners havecontinued to foot the bill for the upgrades and expansions.

With proposed solutions already given to both state policymakers and utilities alike, the independent electric generators met Monday in an attempt to hammer out common strategies for repairing California’s tattered electricity restructuring efforts, including a wholesale spot power market that is continuing to produce historically high prices.

The future of merchant power will be inhibited unless there arenew approaches and new perceptions about the technical, economicand political approaches applied, according to a panel of expertsat GasMart/Power 2000 Tuesday in Denver. Regardless of what preciseindustry changes are made, not all of the proposed new power plantswill get built, and distributed generation ultimately will have toplay a role to satisfy the expected growing demand that equates toabout 5 Tcf of added gas over the next 10 years, according topanelists discussing “The Runaway World of Merchant Power.”