Urgent

Distrigas of Massachusetts LLC declared force majeure Friday — which means that it is unable to meet the contract demand of its 20 “or so” customers in New England — only days after the U.S. Coast Guard banned a tanker filled with liquefied natural gas (LNG) and destined for the company’s Everett, MA, terminal from entering Boston Harbor due to safety and security concerns, a FERC spokeswoman said.

The National Energy Marketers Association (NEM), responding to the Bush administration’s energy plan and the Democrats’ response, issued on Tuesday an urgent call for bipartisan support for meaningful incentives for massive new investments in additional energy supplies, conservation, infrastructure and technology. “Both plans recognize that new investments are required immediately, but both plans lack sufficient incentives to permit energy prices to come down,” said NEM President Craig Goodman. “Accelerated cost recoveries for new investments in energy supply, conservation, advanced energy technology and environmental protection will solve the energy supply problem quickly and is one of the lowest cost, highest yield policy solutions. New energy supplies, conservation and advanced technology will lower costs to all consumers and should be considered a moral imperative. NEM has long advocated the expansion of existing Internal Revenue Code Sections to include ‘Qualified Energy Restructuring Investments’ for new supplies, conservation, infrastructure, advanced metering and distributed generation technologies.”

In response to the “urgent” need for additional gas supplies toserve California’s electric generation markets this summer, KernRiver Gas Transmission has announced an emergency open season for135,000 Dth/d firm transportation service expected to be availableby July 1.