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Southern Union Co. renegotiated its franchise agreement with thecity of El Paso, TX, earlier this week, the company said. Under theterms of the deal, Southern Union will receive a cost-of-servicerevenue increase of $650,000, but it did not disclose the deal’stotal value. The agreement was unanimously approved by the El PasoCity Council on Feb. 22.

Initial reaction to the idea of consolidating the majorWashington D.C.-based energy trade groups under one umbrella seemsto be running from cold to warm, with some emphatically opposed toit and others at least willing to discuss it.

Nicor Energy LLC said yesterday that it began supplying 30% ofIllinois’ state-run buildings as of Jan. 1. Under arecently-finalized agreement with the Illinois Department ofCentral Management Services the Nicor-Dynegy partnership willsupply the buildings with 2.8 Bcf during the 18-month term.

Reliant is under a Critical Period operational alert due tosevere weather in the system’s market area. Effective today no SBSrate schedule storage withdrawals will be allowed until furthernotice.

The retreat of Northeast citygates from last week’s lofty levelswas still under way Monday, but the rate of decline was slowing.Otherwise, except for softening at Rockies and PacificNorthwest/western Canada points and moderate firmness at Midwestcitygates; flat to slightly lower pricing dominated the west of themarket.

Williams and British Columbia Hydro are holding an open seasonthrough Feb. 22 for their proposed Georgia Strait Crossing PipelineProject (GSX). The project was announced in September (see Daily GPI,Sept. 30).

Washington Gas Light Co. announced last week that it intends toreorganize its corporate structure to form a holding company knownas WGL Holdings, Inc. Under the new structure, Washington Gas, asthe regulated utility, and the subsidiaries it currently holds,would each operate as separate subsidiaries of WGL Holdings, Inc.Washington Gas will continue to operate as the regulated localnatural gas distribution company throughout the Washington, D.C.metropolitan region.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission approved Columbia Gasof Pennsylvania’s restructuring settlement, making the company thefirst to gain commission approval under the guidelines set forththis summer in the Natural Gas Choice and Competition Act. Thesettlement, which included 26 parties, allows Columbia to advanceits choice program, expand its customer assistance program (CAP)statewide, and provide telephonic and Internet enrollment.

Florida Gas Transmission postponed until further notice thereplacement of 120 feet of 36-inch pipe under High 331 betweenStations 12 and 13 in the Florida Panhandle, and also canceled theassociated Overage Alert Day east of Station 12. The project had beenscheduled for Thanksgiving Day (see Daily GPI, Nov. 16). FGT still planned to take Station14 down to tie in additional facilities but delayed the start date byone day to Saturday (Nov. 27). That outage is expected to lastthrough Dec. 1 and limits market area deliveries to about 1.3Bcf/d. However, FGT removed the Overage Alert Day notice that waspreviously posted for the work.