Restrict

The House-Senate Energy Conference Committee approved some key provisions last week that pave the way for an Alaskan natural gas pipeline to be built, but one item prohibits a northern pipeline route across the Beaufort Sea and ultimately down the Mackenzie River in Canada. A proposal sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and approved by the committee will require that the pipeline be built along the Alaska Highway south through the Railbelt and the Yukon to reach the lower 48 states.

The House-Senate Energy Conference Committee approved some key provisions that pave the way for an Alaskan natural gas pipeline to be built, but one item prohibits a northern pipeline route across the Beaufort Sea and ultimately down the Mackenzie River in Canada. A proposal sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and approved by the committee will require that the pipeline be built along the Alaska Highway south through the Railbelt and the Yukon to reach the lower 48 states.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) last Thursday urged fellow lawmakers crafting a comprehensive energy bill to place restrictions on what he called FERC’s “virtually unintelligible, 638-page” proposed rulemaking for a standard market design (SMD) in U.S. wholesale electricity markets.

Pressured by its lenders to restrict dividends before credit agreements could be finalized, CMS Energy Corp. last week cut its common dividend 50%, to an annual rate of 72 cents a share. Whether the dividend is restored or even continued after the end of this year will depend on how well the business performs in the future, CFO Alan Wright told analysts during a conference call. By cutting the dividend, however, CMS reached agreement with a group of 21 banks on five credit facilities totaling $1.3 billion.

Chevron, Amoco Production, CanWest Gas Supply, Aera Energy andRME Petroleum have called on FERC to stop Kern River GasTransmission from overselling delivery point rights at WheelerRidge into the Southern California Gas Co. distribution system. TheFirm Shippers said in comments filed this week that, in a situationstrangely similar to the recent El Paso capacity reallocation case,Kern River has oversold capacity at Wheeler Ridge, and its proposedexpansion project will only exacerbate the situation (DocketCP01-31).

The California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) Wednesdaybegan some joint inspections of off-line power plants as it facedthe possibility of declaring a Stage Three alert. Officials had notdeclared the alert as of press time.

California Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill severely limitingthe future of retail gas unbundling in the state, keeping it on aseparate, more restricted track than electricity. AB 1421 replacesa one-year ban on further gas unbundling passed last year by thestate legislature. The measure was strongly backed byinvestor-owned utilities and utility unions.

California Gov. Gray Davis has signed a bill severely limitingthe future of retail gas unbundling in the state, keeping it on aseparate, more restricted track than electricity. AB 1421 replacesa one-year ban on further gas unbundling passed last year by thestate legislature. The measure was strongly backed byinvestor-owned utilities and utility unions (see Daily GPI, Sept.13).