Waiting

After waiting nearly eight months for a response, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, last week to force the Department of Energy (DOE) to produce records related to its role on the White House task force that developed the national energy policy.

After waiting nearly eight months for a response, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, DC, to force the Department of Energy (DOE) to produce records related to its role on the White House task force that developed the national energy policy.

Anxious Houston-based employees Friday were waiting for formal news that their employer, Enron Corp., had filed for bankruptcy, expected to be the largest in U.S. history, and also to learn whether layoffs will begin in the United States as they have in Europe. Across the country, others kept an eye on whether Enron would file a lawsuit against its short-term merger partner Dynegy Corp. for backing out of the transaction last week. Meanwhile, companies that had once dealt with the former trend-setting energy trader continued tallying their own expected losses should Enron go under, and analysts began looking at the pieces, attempting to comprehend and explain a situation gone terribly wrong.

Anxious Houston-based employees Friday were waiting for formal news that their employer, Enron Corp., had filed for bankruptcy, expected to be the largest in U.S. history, and waited to learn whether layoffs will begin in the United States as they have in Europe. Across the country, others kept an eye on whether Enron would file a lawsuit against its short-term merger partner Dynegy Corp. for backing out of the transaction last week. Meanwhile, companies that had once dealt with the former trend-setting energy trader began tallying their own expected losses should Enron go under, and in Washington, DC, legislators announced they would begin investigating exactly who knew what when.

After nearly four years of waiting, FERC staff last week concluded that the controversial U.S. leg of the Millennium Pipeline project could be built and operated to meet environmental standards if a number of “specific” Commission-developed mitigation measures, on top of those already proposed by the pipeline, are taken.

After nearly four years of waiting, FERC staff has concluded that the controversial U.S. leg of the Millennium Pipeline project could be built and operated to meet environmental standards if Commission-developed mitigation measures, on top of those proposed by the pipeline, are taken.

Williams Cos. was granted early termination of the regulatory waiting period under antitrust laws this week, clearing the way for its proposed acquisition of Denver-based Barrett Resources. Under terms of the agreement announced last month (see Daily GPI, May 8), Williams made a cash tender offer to purchase 16 million shares of Barrett stock at $73 a share. The offer expires June 11.

The cash market went into a general stand-pat mode Wednesday,awaiting developments on the tropical storm, cold weather andstorage fronts. Nearly all points were united in seeing littleprice movement either up or down.

Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner Denise Bode is waiting forsomeone to be politically incorrect — at least when it comes tosetting up a domestic energy policy. She readily admits, however,that the problems that basically eliminated natural gas drillingfor nearly two years in her state won’t be solved overnight.