Unscathed

The Energy Department secretary nominee, eminent physicist Steven Chu, sailed unscathed last week through an extensive round of questions from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members, who generally indicated their respect and support for the Nobel laureate and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Members then launched into their pet projects, spanning a wide range of energy options for the new administration to pursue.

The Energy Department secretary nominee, eminent physicist Steven Chu, sailed unscathed Tuesday through an extensive round of questions from Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members, who generally indicated their respect and support for the Nobel laureate and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Members then launched into their pet projects, spanning a wide range of energy options for the new administration to pursue.

Florida Gas Transmission emerged unscathed from wreckage of Hurricane Frances. The company reported no compressor station outages and no lingering operational impact. However it did call an overage alert day on Tuesday with a 25% tolerance. Gas demand was greatly reduced for on Saturday and Sunday. But on Monday demand increased significantly after Frances moved over the Florida Panhandle. As a result of the increase in demand, FGTs linepack became very low. FGT alerted customers in its market area of the overage alert. “Please closely monitor your scheduled quantities versus actual burn quantities,” the pipeline told shippers.

Wall Street did not appear to be fazed Thursday by the class-action lawsuit spearheaded by Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., one of the largest holders of El Paso Corp. stock, that accused the giant energy company and its top officials of participating in fraudulent “schemes and a pattern of conduct” to make El Paso “appear on paper far more successful than it actually was.”

Getting over its last major regulatory hurdle unscathed, Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp. said it expects to close its $195 million acquisition of privately-held Mississippi Valley Gas Co. by Dec. 1. The company said it received approval Tuesday from the Mississippi Public Service Commission to form the state’s largest natural gas utility.

TXU Corp., which so far had remained unscathed in either rumor, innuendo or loss of investor confidence, saw the lights dim Friday after drastically revising downward its earnings forecasts through 2003. By midday, credit ratings agencies were re-evaluating the company’s operations, and investors were selling off their stocks in record numbers.

TXU Corp., which so far had remained unscathed in either rumor, innuendo or loss of investor confidence, saw the lights dim Friday after drastically revising downward its earnings forecasts through 2003. By midday, credit ratings agencies were re-evaluating the company’s operations, and investors were selling off their stocks in record numbers.