Promises

The Bush administration’s proposed budget of $1.7 billion for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2005, a $53 million increase from 2004, has little that’s new in it for the natural gas industry. It does more for the renewable energy sector than for non-renewable resources.

In an election day promise, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s newly elected governor, movie actor and former body-builder, vowed Tuesday to try to use market-based approaches on the state’s ailing wholesale energy markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will hold an additional technical conference on “Energy Price Discovery and Indices” on Tuesday June 24 to explore “some of the less familiar options such as Self-Regulating Organizations (SROs) and audited data hubs.” The announcement issued late Thursday (AD03-7-001) said representatives of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners will participate.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) promised a fellow lawmaker last week that he would work to tackle the issue of creating transparency in natural gas price reporting beyond simply calling for a study in pending energy legislation when the bill reaches the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) promised a fellow lawmaker on Wednesday that he would work to tackle the issue of creating transparency in natural gas price reporting beyond simply calling for a study in pending energy legislation when the bill reaches the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives.

California’s often-criticized regulatory commission will strive to take a more “balanced approach” in weighing consumer, utility and economic interests, according to Michael Peevey, the former utility senior executive who was named New Year’s eve to a six-year commission term and as president of the five-member California Public Utilities Commission.

For Dynegy Inc., it’s way too early to party down, but the shunned wallflower of the energy merchant sector regained some of its former appeal to investors last week following some straight talk from the new CEO. Bruce Williamson, who assumed the helm just last month, offered a salve to the ailing company in his first conference call with analysts, inspiring confidence lacking for months in the former powerhouse energy merchant.

Today’s regular FERC meeting, the first one over which Chairman Pat Wood III will preside, promises to be a very long and interesting one. In addition to the regular consent agenda items, the Commission has listed a number of administrative issues that will be discussed, including the adequacy of the energy infrastructure, an update on the pipeline capacity situation to and within California, “strategic and 2002 business plans,” as well as other items. (AD01-2, AD01-3, AD01-1).

With the introduction of the Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline in mid-2002, the whole “tenor of the gas market” in the Sunshine State will undergo structural and financial changes, said a Gulfstream executive last week.