Presidential

AES Ocean Express LLC on Thursday received a presidential permit and authorizations from FERC to build the 54-mile U.S. leg of a pipeline that would transport 842 MMcf/d of gas to southern Florida from a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in the Bahamas.

The Department of Defense has given the green light for FERC to issue an amended presidential permit to Sierra Production Co. to double the capacity of its border-crossing facilities at the Montana-Canadian line.

Presidential hopeful Sen Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) last week called on the Interior Department inspector general to conduct a broad review of potential conflicts of interest between Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles and oil and natural gas companies.

Calgary-based Regent Resources Ltd. last week received FERC and presidential clearances to build crossing facilities at the Montana-Canadian border in order to boost imports of natural gas into the western U.S. state.

Calgary-based Regent Resources Ltd. on Wednesday received FERC and presidential clearances to build border-crossing facilities at the Montana-Canadian boundary in order to boost imports of natural gas into the western U.S. state.

U.S. Rep. Robert Filner of California has called on FERC to rescind a Presidential Permit and Section 3 NGA Authorization for the U.S. leg of the proposed North Baja Pipeline while the agency re-opens its environmental review of the project to address the potential cross-border pollution from Mexican power plants that would be served by the natural gas line.

In the wake of last week’s Presidential energy trip to California, state officials are continuing their love-hate relationship with the Bush Administration, which Gov. Gray Davis credits with providing the “little things” needed to boost supply and cut demand, but avoiding “the big enchilada” of wholesale price relief.

Although this week’s presidential meeting is likely to complicate California’s embroiled political landscape, Republican state legislators are convinced that a bipartisan, wide-ranging deal is still possible without state transmission grid ownership or another utility bankruptcy. It would involve discounts by generators of past-due billings, amounting to billions of dollars. Ultimately, a key adviser to the Republicans said Tuesday, all civil suits against the merchant generators would have to be dropped, something Gov. Gray Davis has adamantly resisted publicly.

Regardless of who wins this week’s presidential election, SanDiego-based Sempra Energy advocates an expanded national energypolicy and development of sufficient pipeline upgrades to ensurethat the nation’s gas infrastructure can support all of the newnatural gas-fired electric generating plants that are underconstruction or in development throughout the nation.