President

R. Skip Horvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), said Wednesday that the “calm in today’s natural gas prices” is nothing more than “the low side of our normal business cycle,” with volatility normal and expected in a healthy, competitive market. Horvath, speaking at CERAWeek 2002 in Houston, said the market will continue to see swings, requiring producers to understand both the “depths and heights” to make proper investment decisions.

Dynegy’s President Steve Bergstrom told analysts in New York Thursday that there’s a higher likelihood now for an energy market expansion rather than a consolidation. Speaking at UBS Warburg’s Global Energy and Utilities Conference, Bergstrom said the massive 25% market share of Enron currently is being dispersed among other existing energy players, but there’s room for more big players in this growing market.

R. Skip Horvath, president of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), said Wednesday that the “calm in today’s natural gas prices” is nothing more than “the low side of our normal business cycle,” with volatility normal and expected in a healthy, competitive market. Horvath, speaking at CERAWeek 2002 in Houston, said the market will continue to see swings, requiring producers to understand both the “depths and heights” to make proper investment decisions.

Former Enron executive Mario Max Yzaguirre, who recently resigned as president of Enron de Mexico, has been named by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to fill the spot vacated by Judy Walsh on the three-member Texas Public Utilities Commission. Perry still has one spot to fill after former Chairman Pat Wood III was named to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Senate Republicans pulled out all the stops last week to get the Democratic leadership to move on energy legislation before the end of the session, and even vowed to tack on an energy bill to other legislation such as the economic-stimulus measure pending in the upper chamber.

President Bush has announced his intention to nominate Joseph Timothy Kelliher to fill out the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

President Bush announced his intention to nominate Kathleen Burton Clarke to be director of the Bureau of Land Management at the Department of Interior. She has served as the executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources since 1998, and she was deputy director from 1993 to 1998. Clarke served in the office of Rep. James V. Hansen from 1987 to 1993, first as director of constituent services and then as executive director. A Utah native, she is a graduate of Utah State University.

As Enron Corp.’s stock continued on a downward spiral yesterday in the wake of President and CEO Jeff Skilling’s announced resignation late Tuesday, Wall Street analysts moved quickly to reduce their long-term price targets for the energy giant’s stock and downgrade their ratings (see Daily GPI, Aug. 15).

The president of the California Public Utilities Commission Wednesday gave a qualified thumbs up to the recently imposed federal wholesale electricity price mitigation measures, saying they are having an impact in “tamping down” power prices, but they are not enough.