Things

Repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA) is one of the most important things the next Congress can do to spur recovery of the power industry, according to former FERC Chair Elizabeth Moler. Repeal would remove a barrier to capital and help repair the “financial carnage that has afflicted many power companies this year.”

Natural gas prices have weakened in recent weeks, but they may weaken even more in the coming weeks because of two things: corrections to the “huge” inventory overhang and weakening oil prices, which will put pressure on gas prices in the short term, according to Lehman Brothers in its latest “Oil & Gas: Exploration & Production Update.”

A proposal by Southern Natural Gas Co. to revise tariff provisions that would, among other things, award transportation requests for 90 days or less without holding an open season, is being protested by Indicated Shippers, which argues that the proposal is “contrary to the scheduling equality goals of (FERC) Order No. 637,” and would grant the company “too much discretion to decide when to hold an open season” for shorter terms.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) last Monday took dead aim at press reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to roll out plans that will call for a shift away from using the stick of lawsuits to enforce clean air regulations in favor of a carrot-like approach that will urge electric utilities to voluntarily reduce toxic emissions.

The GAO, the investigative arm of Congress, said it will file the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC within the next few weeks, challenging the decision of Bush and Cheney to withhold the documents on the grounds that it would encroach on the authority of the executive branch. This marks the first time the GAO will bring legal action against the executive branch to compel production of information and records.

California regulators will hold public hearings Tuesday and Wednesday in the mountains and high desert region about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles as part of an investigation into the skyrocketing natural gas prices last winter charged by Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp.

Despite the bullish double whammy of rising crude prices and the development of a tropical wave in the Atlantic, natural gas futures remained extremely quiet Friday, as traders elected to wait until a clearer fundamental and technical picture develops. With that the November contract spent a second straight day moving sideways, slipping 0.9 cents at the close to finish at $2.244. November crude oil, meanwhile, tracked 69 cents higher to close at $23.43.

The U.S. House is expected to vote today on an energy appropriations bill that, among other things, will attempt to block construction of the 744-mile Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline project that would transport gas from Mobile Bay, AL, across the Gulf of Mexico to the ever-expanding Florida market.

Reps. W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA), Joe Barton (R-TX) and James Greenwood (R-PA) are seeking assurances from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the NRC has enough resources to adequately address its current workload, as well as any additional regulatory activities that are likely to come the agency’s way, going forward.