Restoration

Congress will cut short its recess to hold an emergency session to approve a $10 billion supplemental emergency spending measure for relief efforts and restoration of infrastructure in the three hurricane-stricken Gulf coastal states, including repairs for energy facilities damaged by the hurricane force winds and flood waters.

With federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigators picking through the aftermath of last Monday’s emergency shutdown of Arizona’s Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, the first of its three units (Unit #1) was ramping up to full operations Friday, according to a spokesperson for Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service (APS), the majority owner and operator of the plant.

No longer believers in the Enron Corp. energy trading mantra that “bigger is better,” Mirant Corp. and Reliant Resources Inc. executives said Thursday that the focus now is on cash — finding it, paying off debts with it and keeping as much of it as they can. They both conceded that for them, anyway, physical gas trading has not become a cash cow.

Argentina’s economic “restoration plans” that include a devaluation of the currency announced on Jan. 6 will impact a number of companies with operations in South America, including Sempra Energy, Duke Energy and other private-sector investors in utility and energy projects in South America’s third largest economy.

Argentina’s economic “restoration plans” that include a devaluation of the currency announced last Sunday will impact a number of companies with operations in South America, including Sempra Energy, Duke Energy and other private-sector investors in utility and energy projects in South America’s third largest economy. San Diego-based Sempra with 43% stakes in two Argentine natural gas utilities Monday said it was closely monitoring the situation and assessing to see if the potential impact on future earnings would be enough to warrant a formal announcement.