Upholds

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has upheld its earlier order imposing a heavy reporting requirements on transporters and sellers of natural gas into the California market.

A Maryland Circuit Court has upheld the state public service commission’s authority to regulate the relationship between utilities and their affiliates. In an order issued last July, the Maryland PSC extended its regulatory reach to cover not only marketing affiliate relationships with the regulated utility, but also those of so-called “non-core” affiliates, such as energy service companies. The order angered gas and electric utilities, who sought to have it overturned.

Vectren Corp. announced that the Indiana Supreme Court hasoverturned an appeals court verdict and affirmed the Sept. 12, 1997order of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), that thegas supply agreements between utilities Indiana Gas and CitizensGas and Coke and their joint venture marketing affiliate, ProLianceEnergy, are in the public interest.

Vectren Corp. announced that the Indiana Supreme Court hasoverturned an appeals court verdict and affirmed the Sept. 12, 1997order of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), that thegas supply agreements between utilities Indiana Gas and CitizensGas and Coke and their joint venture marketing affiliate, ProLianceEnergy, are in the public interest.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the mostsignificant aspects of FERC Orders 888 and 889 in a ruling releasedon Friday. “Finding few defects in the orders, we uphold them innearly all respects,” the court stated in its decision(Transmission Access Policy Study Group, et al. v. FERC No.97-1715).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has denied ANRPipeline’s petition for review of a FERC ruling that permittedNautilus Pipeline to build a competing pipeline off the coast ofLouisiana.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last week deniedANR Pipeline’s petition for review of a FERC ruling that permittedNautilus Pipeline to build a competing pipeline off the coast ofLouisiana.

Just because your competitors are breaking the rules, doesn’tmean that you should be allowed to do so, FERC essentially told twoEnron affiliates last week when it denied their plea for a limitedwaiver of its capacity-release rule and the “shipper must havetitle” policy. The affiliates contend they sought the waiver sothey could compete with other suppliers that allegedly are ignoringthe title rule in order to evade paying certain taxes in New YorkState.

FERC yesterday flatly rejected a request by two Enron affiliatesfor a limited waiver of the capacity-release regulations and the”shipper must have title” policy that would enable them to transfertitle to gas being shipped on five New York State-bound pipelinesbefore the gas actually hits the market.