Tune

A growing chorus of weather prognosticators are singing the same tune, predicting a relatively warm weather across most of the United States this winter. In separate reports issued last week forecasters at AccuWeather.com and WSI Corp. added their voices to the mix.

Ushering in some stability back into its business, TXU recorded 2003 earnings from continuing operations — before cumulative effect of changes in accounting principles, net of preference stock dividends — of $715 million, or $2.03 per diluted share of common stock. Comparable earnings before extraordinary charges in 2002 were $160 million, or $0.58 per diluted share of common stock.

Ushering in some stability back into its business, TXU recorded 2003 earnings from continuing operations — before cumulative effect of changes in accounting principles, net of preference stock dividends — of $715 million, or $2.03 per diluted share of common stock. Comparable earnings before extraordinary charges in 2002 were $160 million, or $0.58 per diluted share of common stock.

FERC on Friday put 13 California power sellers on notice thatthey must either make refunds to the tune of about $69 million orprovide further justification of the prices they charged forelectricity sold in the California Independent System Operator(ISO) and Power Exchange (PX) markets during the month of January.

FERC on Friday put 13 California power sellers on notice thatthey must either make refunds to the tune of about $69 million orprovide further justification of the prices they charged forelectricity sold in the California Independent System Operator(ISO) and Power Exchange (PX) markets during the month of January.

FERC last week changed its tune and cleared the way for NorthernNatural Gas to acquire off-system, interruptible capacity fromthird-party pipelines. On rehearing of a July order, the Commissionfound that since Northern Natural sought the IT capacity to augmentits own operations, rather than for the purpose of re-marketing it,its request did not raise the concerns cited in a 1997 TexasEastern Transmission (Tetco) case.

FERC last week changed its tune and cleared the way for NorthernNatural Gas to acquire off-system, interruptible capacity fromthird-party pipelines. On rehearing of a July order, the Commissionfound that since Northern Natural sought the IT capacity to augmentits own operations, rather than for the purpose of re-marketing it,its request did not raise the concerns cited in a 1997 TexasEastern Transmission case. There, FERC feared that third-partypurchases could lead to preferential treatment for purchasingpipelines and could limit the capacity choices of other customerson third-party systems.

Changes were in the air last Wednesday at the New YorkMercantile Exchange. Traders were greeted with a new promptmonth-January, a stronger December cash market, and even a freshrally-thanks to a short-covering Tuesday. Just about the only thingthat hadn’t changed were the bearish fundamental factors-storageand weather-prevalent in the market. But once again thosefundamentals were king Wednesday, and the selling pushed theJanuary contract down 7.9 cents to $2.196 at the closing bell.

Columbia Energy CEO Oliver G. (Rick) Richard gazed deep into acrystal ball yesterday for the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgiaand saw thousands of municipal gas customers using the Internet tochoose from among a plethora of alternative gas suppliers. All themunicipals saw through that crystal, however, was Richard on theother side.