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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday issued a final rule and a proposed rule to give regulators additional information regarding natural gas prices and physical flows, allowing them to evaluate the composition and effectiveness of the index pricing regime that governs the domestic wholesale market and measure physical natural gas flows at various locations and in the aggregate.

Not without challenges regarding increased inter-regional supply competition, price and peak demand capacity, natural gas in the Pacific Northwest faces the next five years in “good health,” with annual demand growth expected at 1.9%.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) took six unanimous actions regarding natural gas and electricity issues Thursday with nary a word of discussion.

Opposing political voices across the river in Washington state are growing in number and volume regarding NorthernStar Natural Gas Co.’s proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Bradwood Landing, OR, in the Columbia River, the main economic artery for the Pacific Northwest. Three state legislators joined the chorus last Thursday, and a Feb. 28 U.S. Coast Guard report is being interpreted as classifying the site as “unsuitable.”

Idaho’s Public Utilities Commission announced Monday that it is accepting written comments and will hold a public workshop May 16 regarding a request by Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities to form a new holding company to be called AVA Formation Corp. Written comments to the PUC will be accepted through June 16.

Speculation grew this week in Montana regarding potential merger/acquisition partners for the state’s largest utility owner, South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy Corp. But a NorthWestern spokesperson Wednesday said its board has not set any timetable for deciding on competing offers, and would not speculate on new entrants in addition to the previously announced interest by Black Hills Corp. and a public sector coalition of Montana cities named Montana Public Power.

TransCanada Corp. announced Thursday it reached a settlement with customers and other interested parties regarding 2006 tolls on its Canadian Mainline natural gas transmission system that would set the annualized benchmark Eastern Zone toll for 2006 at C94.5 cents/GJ, a rate significantly less than last year’s due to increased throughput and cost savings.

Although painfully short on details, there was an official announcement Wednesday by Australian energy giant Woodside Energy Ltd.’s U.S. unit in Los Angeles regarding its plans to apply to federal, state and local agencies to develop a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import project at an unspecified site along California’s coast.

Jury selection started Monday in a California Superior Court in San Diego County regarding a class action lawsuit against Sempra Energy and its two major utility affiliates, alleging that they conspired with others back in the pre-western energy crisis late 1990s to drive up wholesale natural gas prices at the California-Arizona border.