Spotlight

Kenneth Lay, the founder and former chairman of Enron Corp., takes the spotlight in a Houston courtroom on Monday to answer charges that he conspired to commit securities and wire fraud in the three months before Enron declared bankruptcy in December 2001. Lay’s testimony comes just a few days after former CEO Jeffrey Skilling took his turn in the witness chair, maintaining his innocence on 28 criminal counts.

The defense team grabbed the spotlight last week in the trial of Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling by attempting to tear down former CFO Andrew Fastow’s credibility. Lawyers for Skilling and Lay went right to the heart of their defensive strategy, telling the jury that Fastow was a devious accountant and skilled liar who duped his bosses, stole millions and pushed the company toward financial ruin.

Resigned to the fact that crude was hogging the spotlight Wednesday, September natural gas futures puttered around within an 11-cent range ahead of their expiration Friday.

A canyon located in southeastern Utah — near where a Denver-based producer is conducting seismic natural gas exploration, which environmental groups are trying to stop — has made the list of the “Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places in America” for the current year.

A canyon located in southeastern Utah — near where a Denver-based producer is conducting seismic natural gas exploration, which environmental groups are trying to stop — has made the list of the “Eleven Most Endangered Historic Places in America” for the current year.

California’s two major energy agencies told a state Senate Utilities and Communications Committee last week (Feb. 10) in Sacramento that additional “energy action” is needed this year to keep the state on its current track of restoring the major energy utilities to full financial strength and increasing the electricity and natural gas systems’ reliability for the future beyond 2006.

TransCanada PipeLines broke with tradition in letting its power business take the spotlight last year. The company said Tuesday that it raised its dividend by C2 cents/share to C29 cents and reported higher net income for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2003 mainly due to improvements made possible by its power plant acquisitions. Its full-year C$1.66/share earnings from continuing operations beat analysts estimates of C$1.59/share.

TransCanada PipeLines broke with tradition in letting its power business take the spotlight last year. The company said Tuesday that it raised its dividend by C2 cents/share to 29 cents and reported higher net income for the fourth quarter and the full year of 2003 mainly due to improvements made possible by its power plant acquisitions. Its full-year $1.66/share earnings from continuing operations beat analysts estimates of $1.59/share.

After decades as a research project, coalbed methane shows signs of spreading north and maturing into production on an industrial scale in Canada as natural-gas producers scramble at least to maintain current supplies.