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Jury selection began Monday in the upcoming trial of five former Enron Corp. executives who are accused of lying to make the company’s fledgling broadband business appear successful. The former Enron Broadband Systems (EBS) employees face 170 counts of conspiracy, wire and securities fraud, insider trading and money laundering.

State law and bankruptcy reorganization criteria make it a longshot that any of the public or private-sector proposals to buy Portland General Electric (PGE) will displace the current plan to distribute the Enron Corp. utility’s stock to the Chapter 11-reorganized holding company’s major creditors. The possibility of another buyer emerging is not impossible, but unlikely, according to sources at both the utility and holding company.

While most of the independent power sector and California state officials will be holding their collective breath until the end of the upcoming summer, for the short term western electric industry stakeholders are focused on early April for the final assessment of what likely will happen and how much extra demand-side management will be needed to avoid blackouts, particularly in the southern half of California.

The energy industry is the second largest financial contributor to President Bush’s upcoming inaugural celebration on Jan. 20, according to a Washington, DC-based watchdog group. Twelve energy corporations and executives, including nine from the oil and natural gas industry, have chipped in a total of $2.3 million for the event, said Public Citizen. The single largest financial contributor is the finance and investment industry, kicking in $5 million, it noted. Of the $17.8 million raised so far for the inauguration, Public Citizen said records show that $17.1 million, or 96%, came from corporations and their senior executives, with two corporations — Ameriquest and Marriott International — effectively skirting the $250,000 cap on contributions by giving multiple checks through their subsidiaries.

As the deeply split state regulatory commission was holding its last acrimonious meeting Thursday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his choices for two seats on the five-member California Public Utilities Commission that become vacant the end of this month. The governor has chosen an energy efficiency advocate and a Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist.

As the deeply split state regulatory commission was holding its last acrimonious meeting Thursday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his choices for two seats on the five-member California Public Utilities Commission that become vacant the end of this month. The governor has chosen an energy efficiency advocate and a Silicon Valley-based telecommunications/information technology entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist.

Despite the fact that trading volumes remained light due to Passover and upcoming Good Friday, May natural gas futures shimmied up 6.3 cents to close at $5.872, halting a two-day stretch during which the daily changes were less than a penny.

Except for a few essentially flat points in Appalachia and the Gulf Coast, the two-day bullish streak in the general cash market ended Thursday. Several Northeast citygates measured declines in triple-digit amounts, while elsewhere losses tended to range from about a nickel to nearly 90 cents. Traders cited approaching breaks, however small, from the icy conditions that have plagued markets across the northern U.S. and Canada — and even down into the Southeast — over the past few days as chiefly responsible for the price reversals.

Northwest cautioned shippers Tuesday “to purchase adequate gas supplies and not to draft the pipeline during the upcoming weekend.” It went on to note that market-area weather had been cold for the previous few days, and that “extremely cold temperatures” were predicted to begin Sunday (Jan. 4). For last Tuesday’s gas day, withdrawals from Jackson Prairie storage were twice as high as scheduled nominations, Northwest said. If system drafting continues, “Northwest will be forced to evaluate customer-specific and/or general entitlements in order to stop any drastic decline in our Jackson Prairie balancing gas.”