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Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court made it clear last week that the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) has the ultimate say over how best to ensure reliability for Pennsylvania’s electric system, saying that the PUC needs to have wide latitude in being able to order customers to curtail energy usage during periods of peak demand in order to avoid brownouts or blackouts.

Following weeks of nasty accusations by both sides in a high profile hostile takeover attempt, Canadian Superior Energy Inc. has quietly withdrawn its bid for Calgary crosstown rival Canadian 88 Energy Corp., citing Canadian 88’s “erosion” of shareholder value relative to its own. Canadian Superior also cited Canadian 88’s refusal to provide requested information in its takeover attempt.

Yielding to pressure from all sides, FERC last week did a complete about-face and set for hearing the allegations that El Paso Natural Gas rigged the bidding process for a large block of transportation capacity on its system to favor its merchant-power generation facilities. The decision was a major win for California parties and a disappointing setback for El Paso pipeline and its affiliates.

Late in the week, Gov. Gray Davis met with the state legislative leaders who on both sides of the aisle were churning out new proposals for salvaging the state energy operations and keeping Southern California Edison Co. out of bankruptcy court. Consumer advocates and the state’s largest businesses are keeping a wary eye. Speculation is high that generators and the governor are going to have to give something, too.

California’s energy crisis has become more of an energy war, with public comments from all sides taking on distinctly adversarial tones. Gov. Gray Davis’ current strategy is to go after merchant generators in the news media and legislative forums. At the same time the governor has become the Democratic Party point person, attacking the Bush Administration on its energy policy as it relates to the western states and sky-high wholesale natural gas and electricity prices.

Responding to concerns voiced by several Texas qualifying facilities (QFs), FERC last week affirmed that any company that meets the definition of electric utility under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) following restructuring in the Lone Star state will continue to have an obligation to purchase power from QFs.

Responding to concerns voiced by several Texas qualifying facilities (QFs), FERC this week affirmed that any company that meets the definition of electric utility under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) following restructuring in the Lone Star state will continue to have an obligation to purchase power from QFs.

Williams and BC Hydro applied to federal regulators on both sides of the Canadian border Tuesday to build a 94 MMcf/d natural gas transmission pipeline in the state of Washington, underwater in the Georgia Strait and on Vancouver Island in Canada to serve power plants in the area. With sufficient regulatory approvals, construction of the $159 million project could start in the fall of 2002 with operation of the pipeline beginning a year later.

Illustrating two different energy business strategies, KinderMorgan Inc. (KMI) and The Williams Companies were on the oppositesides of a major tolling agreement last week. The deal covers 3,300MW of combined cycle peaking capacity Kinder Morgan is building inthe Midcontinent and in the Southeast regions of the United States.