Road

In a critical step on the road to financial solvency for the state and two private-sector utilities, the California Public Utilities Commission last Wednesday issued its draft rate agreement with the state water resources department (DWR), which since January has been buying billions of dollars of wholesale electricity for the state. Comments on the draft are due by Aug. 1, and the regulators expect to act on the final document at their regular business meeting Aug. 23.

Taking a middle of the road approach, the board of directors at the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) last Tuesday issued a request to market participants to work to develop what the board called a “balanced sanctions” proposal related to market power abuse by the middle of next month.

Taking a middle of the road approach, the board of directors at the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) yesterday issued a request to market participants to work to develop what the board called a “balanced sanctions” proposal related to market power abuse by the middle of next month.

“What we have is basically a two-lane road, and the marketers and everyone else want to use it as a six-lane highway,” Edward Tirello, analyst for Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, said describing the U.S. power grid. “But someone is going to have to spend a enormous amount of money to [make it happen], and no one is spending any money right now.”

There are dangers down the road in relying solely on natural gas-fired electricity generation for both companies and consumers, according to Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) in its Natural Gas Power Alert released last week. The firm said the risk of not diversifying a portfolio with coal-fired or oil-fired generation greatly increases the exposure of a company or a state to the volatile natural gas market.

There are dangers down the road in relying solely on naturalgas-fired electricity generation for both companies and consumers,according to Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) in its NaturalGas Power Alert released last week. The firm said the risk of notdiversifying a portfolio with coal-fired or oil-fired generationgreatly increases the exposure of a company or a state to thevolatile natural gas market.

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see NGI, Oct. 23, 2000).

The European Commission has approved Chevron Corp.’s purchase ofTexaco Inc., clearing one hurdle on its road toward a successfulmerger by possibly this summer. Still to come is the lengthy U.S.approval process, including approval by the U.S. Federal TradeCommission. In a statement, the European Commission said that “thenumber of areas where the companies’ activities overlap in Europeis limited and where they do (overlap), the combined market sharesremain below 15%.” Chevron has sold most of its Europeanoperations: some in 1984 to Texaco, another group to RoyalDutch/Shell Group in 1997 and some to Petroplus in 1998. SanFrancisco-based Chevron agreed to buy Texaco, based in WhitePlains, NY, last October for $35.1 billion in stock and assumeddebt of $7.5 billion (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2000).

If the Energy Information Agency (EIA) was envisioning a smoothroad ahead when it filed for an emergency approval from the Officeof Management and Budget for a new energy survey in the Northeast,the agency is in for a rude awakening.