Sounds

In a plan that sounds similar to the shelved Picacho Pipeline proposal, Casper, WY-based Western Energy LLC said it plans to construct a $2.6 billion, 1 Bcf/d natural gas pipeline that would run from the Waha Hub in West Texas through New Mexico and Arizona, ending at the Colorado River.

In a plan that sounds similar to the shelved Picacho Pipeline proposal, Casper, WY-based Western Energy LLC said this week it plans to construct a $2.6 billion, 1 Bcf/d natural gas pipeline that would run from the Waha Hub in West Texas through New Mexico and Arizona and ending at the Colorado River.

The California state legislature’s chief advocate for a return to tightly regulated energy utilities absent retail customer choice programs told a legislative committee session Wednesday that natural gas could prove the next serious energy problem for the nation’s most populous state — perhaps as early as this fall or the coming winter. Increasing reliance on gas derivatives is at the heart of the problem, according to the legislator.

Governors of nine western states announced last week an emergency energy conservation strategy to avert a California-type energy crisis and to mitigate future higher energy prices.

Conservation and off-peak power usage have become the rallyingcries from government and utility officials in the western statesfacing power shortages, as they seek to avert a California-typecrisis.

President Clinton’s decision yesterday ordering the Departmentof Energy to trade crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reservefor two million barrels of heating oil stored in the Northeast asprotection against fuel shortages this winter may not be enough tocalm down Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY).

CMS Energy’s Chairman William T. McCormick Jr. cited “asignificant lack of adequate transmission capacity,” and noincentives to build more, as threats to the reliability of thenation’s power delivery system in a deregulated environment.

CMS Energy’s Chairman William T. McCormick Jr. cited “asignificant lack of adequate transmission capacity,” and noincentives to build more, as threats to the reliability of thenation’s power delivery system in a deregulated environment.

The phrase “if you build it, they will come” sounds too ancientto describe the nascent e-commerce scene. Perhaps it’s moreappropriate to ask, “if everyone builds something, will they knowwhere to go?” The months ahead will see no dearth of online tradingoptions for energy and related properties, products and services asplayers scramble to create new sites or get on board existing ones.Among this week’s happenings: