Serious

While the cash market seemed able to ignore Tuesday the fact that serious winter weather was starting to spread in most market areas outside the Southeast, it apparently was taking full cognizance of the situation Wednesday. The result was Tuesday’s mild softness yielding to Wednesday gains that ranged from a nickel to 16 cents but were mostly around a dime.

In a congressional hearing that featured a thorough review of the El Paso market manipulation case and all the issues contributing to the serious natural gas market malfunction last year in California, FERC Chairman Pat Wood told a House Government Reform subcommittee chaired by Doug Ose (R-CA) that he does not see a need for new legislation.

Calling high natural gas prices in California “a matter of serious concern,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering an initiative that would require gas sellers and transporters serving the market to submit information on volumes and prices on a regular basis to ascertain if corrective action is warranted.

The Alliance for Competitive Electricity last week called on Congress and the Bush Administration to address serious electric infrastructure deficiencies that it claims threaten adequate supplies of reasonably-priced electricity throughout the nation. The 11-member group currently reads like a list of who’s who in the power industry.

The Alliance for Competitive Electricity said on Monday that it has called on Congress and the Bush Administration to address serious electric infrastructure deficiencies that threaten adequate supplies of reasonably-priced electricity throughout the nation. The 11-member group currently reads as a list of who’s who in the power industry.

With California caught in the “midst of a profoundlyserious…crisis” in its deregulated energy markets, the CaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission (CPUC) has called on FERC to “actimmediately” on its complaint against El Paso Natural Gas toprovide some price relief for natural gas and electric customers inthe state.

The Williams Companies Inc. made clear its plans to be a seriouscontender in the Canadian midstream market with an announcementlast week that it has reached an agreement to buy most ofTransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s remaining ownership interests innatural gas liquids (NGL) and extraction facilities and oneprocessing plant, as well as a one-third interest in a keyAlberta-to-U.S. gas liquids pipeline from Dow Chemical Co.

The Williams Companies Inc. made clear its plans to be a seriouscontender in the Canadian midstream market with an announcementyesterday that it has reached an agreement to buy most ofTransCanada PipeLines Ltd.’s remaining ownership interests innatural gas liquids (NGL) and extraction facilities and oneprocessing plant, as well as a one-third interest in a keyAlberta-to-U.S. gas liquids pipeline from Dow Chemical Co.

The Florida Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to thedevelopment of merchant power in the state and proposed new gassupply lines in a 6-1 decision issued last Thursday, reversing thestate Public Service Commission’s authorization for Duke Energy’sconstruction of a $160 million, 514 MW power plant at New SmyrnaBeach. (See NGI, Aug. 24, 1998)