Supreme

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a petition by the Bush administration to block a lawsuit that seeks to compel Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force to reveal the names of energy companies that may have had a hand in crafting the administration’s energy policy in 2001.

In its lawsuit, Allegheny Energy has asked the New York Supreme Court, where the complaint was filed, to rescind the purchase agreement, in effect reversing the transaction, and require Merrill Lynch to give it back money that it paid to purchase GEM. Allegheny Energy also wants the investment firm to pay punitive and compensatory damages of at least $475 million.

Mexico’s Supreme Court dealt a setback to President Vicente Fox’s plan to promote private generation, voting 8-3 in April to reject changes in the country’s electricity laws. The court ruled that the modifications decreed last year by the Fox administration in an executive order are unconstitutional. Nationalists opposed to a growing movement toward private ownership in the country had challenged Fox’s May 2001 decree to promote private power generation development.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week denied a producer group’s petition for review of a lower court ruling that upheld a Clinton administration prohibition on oil and natural gas leasing in forest lands in Montana.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week denied a producer group’s petition for review of a lower court ruling that upheld a Clinton administration prohibition on oil and natural gas leasing in forest lands in Montana.

With the Supreme Court last week effectively handing the keys tothe White House to now President-elect George W. Bush, speculationhas escalated in Washington D.C. over who will be tapped as thenext FERC chairman under a Republican administration.

With the Supreme Court decision in effect handing the presidencyto Texas Gov. George W. Bush, speculation has escalated inWashington D.C. over who will be named the next FERC chairman undera Republican administration.

The Supreme Court last week refused to review a case in whichKansas gas producers could wind up paying millions of dollars incustomer refunds for selling gas in the 1980s at prices that,because they incorporated the state’s ad valorem tax, may have beenabove the allowed legal limit.

The Supreme Court earlier this week refused to review a case inwhich Kansas gas producers could wind up paying millions of dollarsin customer refunds for selling gas in the 1980s at prices that,because they incorporated the state’s ad valorem tax, may have beenabove the allowed legal limit.