Veteran

A veteran telecommunications attorney and former Federal Communications Commission member who is a strong free market advocate, Rachelle Chong, had her appointment to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) take a detour last Wednesday when a state Senate committee held up deciding whether she will be able to serve out the rest of her term. The head of the state legislative body and also committee chairman, Sen. Don Perata, publicly committed to taking a committee vote Wednesday.

A veteran California Energy Commission (CEC) member and nationally recognized expert told a special meeting of western state energy regulators Friday that energy efficiency programs are the fastest way to address what he considers a worsening greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions problem. And Arthur Rosenfeld, Ph.D., said he wanted to send a message of urgency to the U.S. Congress to wake up and smell the added carbon dioxide (CO2).

Allowing that much is still unknown surrounding the $6 billion downfall of hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC, veteran energy analyst John Olson of Poole Capital Partners LLC said it appears the fund tried to dominate the market by taking enormous position sizes. In Washington, DC, calls for regulation of over-the-counter trading continued.

A 22-year Enron Corp. veteran, who lost all of his retirement savings when the company collapsed, testified Thursday he and other employees were told in the fall of 2001 to ignore negative press reports about the company’s failing condition and to listen instead to corporate leadership.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) shocked even the most veteran industry prognosticators Thursday, announcing an “incredibly bearish” 1 Bcf addition to natural gas storage inventories for Christmas week. The injection, which sparked questions about the report’s validity, sent February natural gas plunging lower Thursday to settle at $9.499, down 69.8 cents for the day.

Politics will be dictating much of what happens to the nation’s natural gas supplies in 2006 and beyond, according to veteran industry analyst John Olson. For instance, politics — rather than economics — will largely dictate whether the country gets a gas pipeline from Alaska, whether the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is opened to exploration, and whether there will be LNG receipt terminals on either the West or East coasts or both.

FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher on Tuesday named Susan J. Court, a 23-year veteran of the agency, to be the new director of the Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI), replacing William Hederman who headed up the office under the administration of former Chairman Pat Wood.

Cantor Fitzgerald LP has hired an energy industry veteran with 10 years experience — including stints at Sempra Energy and TXU Corp. — to lead the expansion of the firm’s energy commodities desk. The New York-based energy group will include brokerage and advisory services in markets for natural gas, power, crude oil, refined products and coal.

President Bush announced the nomination Friday of a new top administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Stephen Johnson, a 24-year EPA veteran who has served as acting administrator since January. The move was a departure from the recent practice of naming a more visible political figure to the top job and did not sit well with some environmentalists.