Resolve

The ranking energy lawmakers in the Senate and House, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), met for the first time last Thursday in their roles as committee chairmen and vowed to work out their differences with the troubled broad energy bill that’s idling away in the Senate.

The ranking energy lawmakers in the Senate and House, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), met for the first time Thursday in their roles as committee chairmen and vowed to work out their differences with the broad energy bill.

The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a stipulation Tuesday to resolve issues with natural gas marketer Energy America LLC regarding improper disconnections of customers’ natural gas service (see Daily GPI, Jan. 6). The disconnections resulted from the company’s failure to properly credit payments from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to at least 54 customers’ accounts. The terms of the stipulation require the company to pay $54,000 into the state administered LIHEAP fund and to pay a $125 credit to each customer who was wrongly disconnected. In addition, the company must also pay each customer $5 for each day they were disconnected. The total amount of these payments is $60,750. However, if the commission identifies additional Energy America customers who were disconnected in error, the stipulation requires the company to make an additional $1,000 payment to LIHEAP for each additional customer.

The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a consent agreement to resolve issues stemming from a June 23 gas pipeline accident near Perry Boulevard in northwestern Atlanta. A third-party excavator ruptured a 24-inch steel high-pressure gas pipeline owned by Atlanta Gas Light. The commission’s investigation found that gas continued to flow for more than four hours from the ruptured pipeline before the company was able to close the valves. The stipulation requires AGL to pay the state $30,000 and to absorb the cost of the gas lost during the incident, estimated at $17,252. In addition, the company must provide within 45 days a revised Emergency Manual that complies with all state and federal safety regulations. Within 60 days after the PSC staff approves the new manual, the company must ensure that all supervisors, service center managers and distribution center foreman are trained in emergency procedures.

Unitil Corp. last Wednesday said that its New Hampshire-based utility subsidiaries have entered into a settlement with Mirant Americas Energy Marketing L.P. with respect to a power supply agreement between the Unitil subsidiaries and the subsidiary of bankrupt Mirant Corp.

El Paso Natural Gas and 14 East of California (EOC) customers last week filed a joint settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which they said represented a “fair and reasonable resolution of all issues involving access” by the EOC shippers to an agency-established temporary 110 MMcf/d capacity pool on the system.

El Paso Natural Gas and 15 East of California (EOC) customers filed a joint settlement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which they said represents a “fair and reasonable resolution of all issues involving access” by the EOC shippers to an agency-established temporary 110 MMcf/d capacity pool on the system.

El Paso Corp. is nearing a $1.7 billion settlement with California to resolve allegations that it manipulated natural gas prices in the state during the energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, according to published reports Thursday.

Several producers have asked FERC to resolve what they believe is an “inconsistency” in an Oct. 31 stipulation and consent agreement negotiated with Transwestern Pipeline, which bars the pipeline from recovering a $550 million loan that it secured to help bail out its parent, Enron Corp., just weeks before it filed for bankruptcy last December.