Politics

Could it be that the House’s top energy lawmaker, Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is planning to leave Capitol Hill to head up the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)?

A 32-year veteran of efforts to build an Arctic natural gas pipeline is betting against one being constructed from either Alaska or the Mackenzie Delta. Harvie Andre, chairman of Arctigas Resources Corp., said “it’s just a small bet (C$100, US$66). I hope I’m wrong. But it smells like the 1970s all over again.”

A 32-year veteran of efforts to build an Arctic natural gas pipeline is betting against one being constructed from either Alaska or the Mackenzie Delta. Harvie Andre, chairman of Arctigas Resources Corp., said “it’s just a small bet (C$100, US$66). I hope I’m wrong. But it smells like the 1970s all over again.”

The refusal of the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering to the federal bench is expected to tie up nominations in the upper chamber for the foreseeable future, including the nomination of Joseph T. Kelliher to fill the vacancy on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Economics, politics and public policy pressures seem to be converging against the creation of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and more cohesive, coherent power markets in the West, according to a consultant and a generators’ representative who spoke at GasMart/Power 2002 last Tuesday in Reno. Although on opposite sides in California’s ongoing electricity restructuring debate, they agreed that regulators and public policymakers need to change their approaches substantially in the future.

The refusal of the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee to approve the nomination of Judge Charles Pickering to the federal bench last week is expected to tie up future nominations in the upper chamber for the foreseeable future, including the nomination of Joseph T. Kelliher to fill the vacancy on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

American legislators stand warned again that they will do no favors for the proposed Alaskan natural gas pipeline if they persist in trying to nail down a route chosen by what it does for political constituencies.

A report by Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader, charges that Enron Corp. used its political connections to its advantage in the electric deregulation battle and was “completely dependent on the removal of government oversight.” Meanwhile, in an interview with the news media, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling said that his resignation last August had nothing to do with a belief that the company was failing. He also said the past few months have been the worst of his life.

When natural gas prices were sky high a year ago, the “window looked wide open” for the long awaited Alaska natural gas pipe, which would carry supplies from the North Slope to the Lower 48. Months later, however, the announcements from producers are practically nil and President Bush’s energy policy proposal to open up more areas for drilling is barely moving. The abundant North Slope natural gas remains frozen, in more ways than one, and whether it will actually move through a pipe at some point in this decade remain questionable.