Regulatory

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a final rule Wednesday that seeks to expand the ability of releasing shippers to recall pipeline capacity from replacement shippers.

The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is undertaking a “comprehensive” review of the reporting requirements for natural gas pipelines, the electricity industry and oil pipelines to determine which still are needed and which aren’t.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved an expansion of Columbia Gas Transmission Corp.’s pipeline to provide 125,000 Dth/d of additional capacity for a new power plant at the Pennsylvania-Delaware border.

After two years of fruitless negotiations and regulatory wrangling, an attempt to secure access for central Canada to natural gas from offshore of Nova Scotia has been shelved.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s investigation into the possible manipulation of energy prices is a critical first step toward wiping away some of the taint that blankets the entire energy industry in the wake of the Enron Corp. financial scandal and the energy deregulation flop in California, said Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell last week.

After two years of fruitless negotiations and regulatory wrangling, an attempt to secure access for central Canada to natural gas from offshore of Nova Scotia has been shelved.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s investigation of possible manipulation of energy prices is a critical first step toward wiping away the taint that blankets the entire energy industry in the wake of the Enron Corp. financial scandal and the energy deregulation flop in California, said Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a formal order last week initiating a fact-finding investigation into possible manipulation of short-term prices for natural gas and electricity in West Coast markets. The agency’s action was sparked by the Enron Corp. financial debacle, Chairman Pat Wood said, and was a follow-up to his pledge before a congressional committee more than two weeks ago (see NGI, Feb. 4).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Wednesday approved two significant energy mergers, Reliant Resources Inc.’s $2.9 billion acquisition of Orion Power Holdings Inc. and Northwest Natural Gas Co.’s $1.8 billion acquisition of Portland General Electric Co., the Oregon utility owned by bankrupt Enron Corp.