Received

Austin, TX-based Green Mountain Energy has received aninvestment of $53.5 million to fund its growth in marketing cleanerenergy sources in deregulated markets in the United States. Oddlyenough, the investment will come overseas from Nuon, the largestutility in the Netherlands and a leading provider of green energyin Europe.

Austin, TX-based Green Mountain Energy has received aninvestment of $53.5 million to fund its growth in marketing cleanerenergy sources in deregulated markets in the United States. Oddlyenough, the investment will come overseas from Nuon, the largestutility in the Netherlands and a leading provider of green energyin Europe.

TXU Electric, a wholly owned subsidiary of TXU, received apartial ruling from the Texas District Court of Travis County thisweek regarding its appeal of a financing order of the PublicUtility Commission of Texas (PUCT). The PUCT order authorizessecuritization of regulatory assets under Senate Bill No. 7, Texaslegislation that restructures the electric industry and authorizesretail competition. Securitization of regulatory assets is a tooladopted by the bill to provide a low-cost way for the electricindustry to transition to a competitive environment. The districtcourt gave a partial ruling reversing that part of PUCT’s financingorder that used regulated asset life (up to 40 years) for purposesof present-valuing the benefits of securitization. The court ruledthat present-value period based on asset life did not conform tothe applicable statute. Instead, it believed that a present-valueperiod based upon stranded cost and regulatory asset recoveryperiod should have been used by PUCT. The court did not set a valueperiod to be used, but said that PUCT could, for example, use thealternative 12-year discounting period contained in its financingorder with the amount to be securitized by TXU Electric increasedto $1.3 billion from $363 million. A final ruling from the court isdue Sept. 5.

NGI reported Monday that the 12th victim of the Aug. 19explosion and fire on El Paso Natural Gas had died Friday based onmisinformation received during an interview with Stacey Gerard,deputy administrator of the Department of Transportation’s Officeof Pipeline Safety (OPS). “We got an internal call that the person[12th victim] had died. I mean that’s really all we’re going by,”said DOT spokeswoman Debbie Hinz in trying to explain the erroryesterday. The sole survivor of the New Mexico blast, Amanda Smith,25, remains in critical condition at the University Medical Centerin Lubbock, TX.

After both projects received preliminary approval from FERC over a month ago, the ongoing race to Florida accross the Gulf of Mexico between Coastal Corp.’s Gulfstream Natural Gas System and Williams and Duke Energy’s Buccaneer pipeline is heating up again (see NGI, May 1). Gulfstream yesterday announced it signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Manatee County Port Authority for a permanent right-of-way easement to cross through Port Manatee

After both projects received preliminary approval from FERC over a month ago, the ongoing race to Florida accross the Gulf of Mexico between Coastal Corp.’s Gulfstream Natural Gas System and Williams and Duke Energy’s Buccaneer pipeline is heating up again (see Daily GPI, April 26). Gulfstream yesterday announced it signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Manatee County Port Authority for a permanent right-of-way easement to cross through Port Manatee

Honeoye Storage Corp. has received FERC approval to expand itswestern New York sandstone storage facility to provide anadditional 1.8 Bcf of firm service capacity under market-basedrates. Honeoye plans an open season to start before the end of Juneand run through July.

Honeoye Storage Corp. has received FERC approval to expand itswestern New York sandstone storage facility to provide anadditional 1.8 Bcf of firm service capacity under market-basedrates. Honeoye plans an open season to start before the end of Juneand run through July.

Williams’ Transco pipeline has received approval for itsSouthCoast Expansion, a project to deliver up to 204 MMcf/d ofadditional supplies starting in November, primarily in Georgia andSouth Carolina. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued acertificate for the project last Monday, accepting Transco’salternate incremental rate scheme, requiring signed 15-yearcontracts for 100% of capacity, and dismissing protests (see FERCDocket CP99-392)