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FERC’s mid-June order expanding price-mitigation around the clock and to the entire western region came under sharp attack from power marketers and generators last week, with some saying it could lead to an “inevitable exodus of marketers” and a “new wave” generation project cancellations in the West.

Enough’s enough, shippers and customers of El Paso Natural Gas told FERC Friday in requesting fast-track processing of a complaint requesting immediate mandatory expansion of the pipeline and a change in its contracting practices to convert unlimited full requirements obligations to set contract demand pacts.

The New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) board of directors last Tuesday voted unanimously to ask FERC to sign off on a penalty plan designed to deter market participants from manipulating New York’s wholesale electricity markets during times of tight power supply.

The New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) board of directors yesterday voted unanimously to ask FERC to sign off on a penalty plan designed to deter market participants from manipulating New York’s wholesale electricity markets during times of tight power supply.

Acknowledging that federal regulators hold most of the trump cards related to lowering natural gas costs, the California legislature nevertheless has produced four bills aimed indirectly at cutting consumer costs by developing more underground storage (AB 78X), producing more in-state gas supplies (AB 73X), eliminating anti-competitive tariffs (AB 23X), and shortening new pipeline permitting processes (AB 42X).

All power suppliers in the West could become the target of a formal FERC investigation into their wholesale rates under a draft emergency bill that is being considered by Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) and members of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee.

All power suppliers in the West could become the target of a formal FERC investigation into their wholesale rates under a draft emergency bill that is being considered by Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) and members of the House Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee.

Following through on a FERC request to expand its pipelinesystem to California, El Paso Natural Gas filed a plan yesterday toadd 230 MMcf/d by Aug. 31 to help alleviate the energy crisis inthe West.

The effects of the western power crisis will prevail throughthis year and beyond — with the possibility of much more severeproblems and concurrent economic consequences this summer than havebeen seen so far — according to a western energy summit Friday,which included western state governors, top federal energyofficials, and the CEOs of energy producers and industrialconsumers.