Variable

With shale gas the United States has an abundant natural resource that wasn’t on the industrial or economic development radar screen a mere five years ago. In other words, “a competitive edge is coming back to America,” Dow Chemical Co.’s Brian Ames told a Houston audience Monday.

The Interior Department said Tuesday it will take another pass at the rules set by the last administration for extracting shale oil from two million acres of federal land in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming, with the possibility of cutting the acreage total and raising royalties.

As the federal government moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions, FERC should recognize the critical role of natural gas to provide baseload generation and complement variable energy resources (VER), such as wind and solar energy, because of its ability to quickly and reliably ramp up to meet electric customers’ demand when wind or sun energy is disrupted, said the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA).

As the federal government moves to cut greenhouse gas emissions, FERC should recognize the critical role of natural gas to provide baseload generation and complement variable energy resources (VER), such as wind and solar energy, because of its ability to quickly and reliably ramp up to meet electric customers’ demand when wind or sun energy is disrupted, said the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA).

While the folks in Boston will remember the bone-chilling cold in mid-January that produced new gas demand records, this winter (December-February) will go down in history as being pretty average overall across the entire nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

FERC approved Northern Border Pipeline Co.’s rate settlement,which converts the pipeline’s rate design to straight-fixedvariable from cost of service and which imposes a moratorium onrate changes until Nov. 1, 2005.

FERC approved Northern Border Pipeline Co.’s rate settlement,which converts the pipeline’s rate design to straight-fixedvariable from cost of service and which imposes a moratorium onrate changes until Nov. 1, 2005.

What are the chances that the U.S. would experience yet anotherwarmer-than-normal winter after just having two in a row?Apparently they’re pretty good right now, according to a new winterweather forecast released last week by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration. One thing is certain: the La Ninatropical Pacific sea temperature event, which is expected toinfluence this winter’s weather, will throw a monkey wrench intoregional weather forecasting models.

Abandoning straight-fixed variable rate design (SFV) in favor ofone that would permit recovery of some pipeline fixed costs in theusage rate would resolve a lot of the competitive concerns raisedby FERC in its mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) and noticeof inquiry (NOI), New York regulators and a coalition of utilitiessaid in separate, yet complementary filings last week.