Turned

While Capitol Hill’s legislative schedule has been turned upside down in the wake of last week’s terrorist attacks, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee still expects to mark up and vote out a comprehensive energy bill this fall, an aide to the committee said.

As expected, prices were falling virtually across the board Thursday as the screen turned in another negative performance and air conditioning load remained unseasonably light outside the western portion of the Southeast and in the Midcontinent and desert Southwest.

Despite a “go slow” approach toward electric competition in Florida that has already turned away Duke Energy, Enron Corp. appears to be making headway in the quest to enter the tightly guarded state, according to a recent SCIENTECH IssueAlert by Will McNamara. The community of Deerfield Beach, FL recently gave Enron approval to build a natural gas-fired power plant one mile north of a site it abandoned last week “amid fierce opposition.”

Despite a “go slow” approach toward electric competition in Florida that has already turned away Duke Energy, Enron Corp. appears to be making headway in the quest to enter the tightly guarded state, according to a recent Scientech IssueAlert by Will McNamara. The community of Deerfield Beach, FL recently gave Enron approval to build a natural gas-fired power plant one mile north of a site it abandoned earlier in the week “amid fierce opposition.”

Continuing to report a trail of red ink, PG&E Corp. Wednesday said its first quarter results turned up a $951 million, or $2.62 per share, loss, driven by a $1.1 billion (after tax) cost of wholesale power by Pacific Gas and Electric Co.in unreimbursed power costs and power purchases by the state transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO.

After gapping lower at the open, natural gas futures turned higher Monday as non-commercial accounts covered shorts initiated in last week’s three-day, 64-cent price erosion. At the closing bell the May contract was 7.8 cents stronger for the session at $5.103.

Alberta Energy Co. Ltd. , one of North America’s largestindependents, turned in a stellar performance in 2000, doublingcash flow and recording net earnings up five-fold, at the same timeit positioned itself for future gains, adding reserves equal to458% of production.

What has been bizarre behavior for more than a month turned intooutright insanity Thursday as California’s electricity gridoperator declared a Stage Three power alert and narrowly avertedrolling blackouts for firm customers. State officials had expectedto have to curtail up to 2,000 MW between 5-8 p.m., centered mostlyin northern California. An unprecedented one-third (15,000 MW) ofthe capacity usually available was out of service.

With overloads of turned-back capacity and a bottoming market for long-term pipeline transportation contracts, distributors have finally picked up some pipeline support for a “generic” departure from straight fixed variable (SFV) rates.