Todd

New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman has asked PresidentClinton to intercede to convince the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission to postpone action on the hotly contested MarketLinkexpansion project for 60 days.

A showdown that was brewing between FERC and New Jersey Gov.Christine Todd Whitman over the hotly contested MarketLinkexpansion was suddenly aborted on Friday when Chairman JamesHoecker pulled the project from the agenda for Tuesday’spre-Thanksgiving meeting.

A showdown that was brewing between FERC and New Jersey Gov.Christine Todd Whitman over the hotly contested MarketLinkexpansion was defused late last week when Chairman James Hoeckerblinked. On Thursday, Hoecker had said the Commission intended toproceed with a vote on MarketLink despite Whitman’s threat that thestate would sue if the project was approved. But he did a completeabout-face the following day by pulling the MarketLink,Independence Pipeline and SupplyLink projects from the agenda forTuesday’s pre-Thanksgiving meeting. A FERC statement simply saidthe orders wouldn’t be completed in time.

New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman signed an energyderegulation bill last week, clearing the way for statewideelectric unbundling to occur by Aug. 1 and statewide, residentialgas unbundling to be in place by Dec. 31. The bill was passed bythe state’s legislature late last month (See NGI, Feb. 1).

Governor Christine Todd Whitman signed an energy deregulationbill Tuesday, clearing the way for statewide electric unbundling tooccur by Aug. 1, 1999 and statewide, residential gas unbundling byDec. 31. The bill was passed by the state’s legislature late lastmonth. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is now incharge of formulating and implementing the deregulation program.