Salvage

A whopper of a service cost hike is built into TransCanada Corp.’s effort to salvage its foundering natural gas Mainline from Alberta to central Canada and the United States, the National Energy Board (NEB) has been told.

Salvage work at Ship Shoal 207 associated with last year’s Hurricane Lili (see Daily GPI, July 1) has been completed, ANR said. It resumed accepting gas into its system Thursday from meters between Eugene Island 188 and Ship Shoal 207.

Reluctantly and in the face of extraordinary pressure fromfinancial, utility and public officials, California regulators lastThursday took initial steps to unfreeze retail electricity ratesfor the state’s two largest investor owned utilities (IOUs) tobegin to cut into the $8 billion of debt dragging down the IOUssince mid-year. An unprecedented lobbying and public communicationseffort by the utilities preceded the action.

Reluctantly and in the face of extraordinary pressure fromfinancial, utility and public officials, California regulatorsThursday took initial steps to unfreeze retail electricity ratesfor the state’s two largest investor owned utilities (IOUs) tobegin to cut into the $8 billion of debt dragging down the IOUssince mid-year. An unprecedented lobbying and public communicationseffort by the utilities preceded the action.