Root

Wyoming regulators said Thursday a mechanical failure was the root cause of a natural gas well blowout late in April at a Chesapeake Energy Corp. drilling site, but operating errors also were contributing factors. The incident, in which no one was injured, lasted about three days (see Daily GPI, April 30).

For retail natural gas choice to recover, several critical ingredients must be present, according to a report by R.J. Rudden Associates Vice President Howard S. Gorman. Residential choice is working well in Ohio, Maryland and Nebraska where meaningful numbers of residential customers participate and marketers are well established, but programs are not doing well in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New Jersey, where there are only a few participants or marketers, or in Georgia where the program has been disruptive to consumers and marketers. The verdict is still out in New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Political forces and physical problems are at the root of theconstrained California energy market, and because of it, otherstates have slowed their pace toward deregulation and may evendecide to forego it for a while, according to an energy expert whohas helped guide companies through regulatory hearings.

A principle that was the cornerstone of FERC’s landmark gasrestructuring rule, Order 636, is absent from Order 888 and is atthe root of many of the reliability problems in the bulk powermarket, say industrial power customers and a utility/marketer.

FERC needs to dust off and review its landmark gas restructuringrule, Order 636, to get to the root of many of the reliabilityproblems in the bulk power market, say industrial power customersand a utility/marketer.