Wake

Even in the wake of the summer’s power crisis and emergencymeasures, San Diego Gas and Electric can’t find any long-term powerpurchase deals to its liking, and, in fact, it has pulled back arequest-for-proposal it had outstanding, soliciting longer-term,fixed price contracts.

In the wake of a summer-long lamenting of the dysfunction, ifnot outright death, of California’s attempt at creating competitiveretail electricity markets, the state’s small remaining band ofnonutility retailers, or “energy service providers” (ESPs), isweighing in with state officials and utilities trying to breathenew life into the state’s once-optimistic drive for moremarket-based energy solutions.

In the wake of President Clinton’s release of crude oil from theStrategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to mitigate heating oil pricesthis winter, Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) of the Senate Energyand Natural Resources Committee yesterday asked Energy SecretaryBill Richardson whether the administration had anything up itssleeve to reduce natural gas prices as the industry enters thewinter heating season.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is taking no chances in thewake of the Carlsbad, NM, natural gas pipeline explosion. It hasordered a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposalto refurbish and put back into service the Equilon Pipeline, a406-mile, 42-year old crude oil pipeline from Odessa, TX toBloomfield, NM.

In the wake of California’s latest round of electricity priceand supply shock concentrated in San Diego, some of the state’smajor energy industry participants have raised the level ofinterest in forward markets and hedging. San Diego Gas and ElectricCo., in particular, has been second guessed about why it did notuse available hedging instruments through the state’s nonprofitpower exchange to help ease the impact of recent wholesale pricespikes on its retail customers.

In the wake of generation shortages and price spikes that haveriddled the western power markets this summer, California’s newestregulators last week indicated the state’s experiment with furtherelectricity unbundling should be halted completely or at a minimumplaced on temporary hold. At least that was the message deliveredwhen the two regulators roundly criticized a new California PublicUtilities Commission staff report that advocated continuedunbundling of the state’s electric distribution market.

There was no shortage of hand-wringing and news mediaannouncements in the West in the wake of recent electricity pricespikes and multi-million-dollar estimated consequences fromCalifornia’s relatively modest round of rolling brownouts aroundthe San Francisco Bay Area. The big question — particular inCalifornia — is whether new solutions will come from regulators,lawmakers or the market.

There was no shortage of hand-wringing and news mediaannouncements in the West in the wake of recent electricity pricespikes and multi-million-dollar estimated consequences fromCalifornia’s relative modest round of rolling brownouts in andaround the San Francisco Bay Area. The big question — particularin California — is whether new solutions will come fromregulators, lawmakers or the market.

Major natural gas producers are seeing red flags everywhere inthe wake of Petal Gas Storage L.L.C’s decision to scrap itsoriginal proposal to build three new pipeline interconnects to itsstorage facilities in Mississippi. They contend the proposal hasbeen amended to benefit Petal’s new-found affiliates at the expenseof non-affiliated customers.