Proposals

Arizona regulators on Wednesday began a series of evidentiary hearings on separate general rate increase proposals from the state’s largest and smallest investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities, respectively. Final action from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) on both cases is expected later this year, a Phoenix-based ACC spokesperson told NGI.

As California lawmakers grapple with different legislative proposals to codify the state’s 33% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) goal for 2020, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told lawmakers he won’t sign any bills that don’t unshackle the retail electricity market by repealing restrictions imposed during the 2000-2001 wholesale energy market crisis. Schwarzenegger wants all residential and core customers to pay equally for the new RPS goal and for limited retail customer choice to be reopened.

The latest among several serious proposals for developing the first commercial-scale natural gas storage in the state failed to get help from the Arizona legislature before it adjourned at the beginning of July. A House-passed bill (HB 2352) would have allowed water injection to clear out shallower salt caverns for eventual underground gas storage, but the bill failed to make it to the Senate floor.

Activity in British Columbia’s (BC) Horn River Basin has been contributing to leasing records in the province, spurring new pipeline proposals and a proposal for a new gas processing plant, which EnCana Corp. filed recently with provincial regulators.

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has given initial approval to Xcel Energy’s long-range generation resource plan, including proposals to replace a pair of coal-fired power plants with a natural gas facility and to add 1,050 MW of renewable generation.

Another project was added to the recent spate of pipeline proposals last week when WBI Holdings Inc. subsidiary Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co. (WBIP) announced plans to develop the Bakken Pipeline, a 100-mile pipe designed to transport gas from the fast-growing Bakken Play in northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana to an interconnect with Alliance Pipeline.

Another project was added to the recent spate of pipeline proposals late Monday when WBI Holdings Inc. subsidiary Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co. (WBIP) announced plans to develop the Bakken Pipeline, a 100-mile pipe designed to transport gas from the fast-growing Bakken Play in northwestern North Dakota and northeastern Montana to an interconnect with Alliance Pipeline.

The Rocky Mountain natural gas pipeline proposals just keep on coming. Last week TransCanada Corp. launched a binding open season for the Pathfinder Project, a gas pipe that would move supplies northeast from the Rockies to Midwest markets. With enough support and regulatory approval, the project could be in service by late 2010.

After a turbulent few months of project proposals and cancellations in states like Indiana and Wyoming, the movement promoting clean coal for power production saw another sign of hope last week as Omaha-based Tenaska Inc. proposed to build the nation’s first new conventional coal-fueled power plant that woul also capture carbon dioxide (CO2) near Sweetwater, TX. The captured CO2 would then be sold for use to enhance oil production in the Permian Basin, resulting in geologic storage.