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Two bills were introduced in the Senate and House yesterday tofight back efforts to open up the coastal plain region of theArctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gasexploration and production.

Southern LNG’s proposed enhancements to its Elba Islandvaporization facilities were granted preliminary approval onnon-environmental grounds by FERC last week. Southern plans toremove five existing vaporizers and replace them with moreefficient ones, resulting in 135 MMcf/d of increased send-outcapability.

With little fresh fundamental news for which to go on, tradersin the natural gas pit at Nymex were cautious Thursday and as aresult neither bull nor bear was able to influence prices much ineither direction. Held to an extremely tight, 11-cent range, Marchprices drifted sideways yesterday, closing just four ticks lower at$5.142.

While the California governor’s press people were promising anannouncement and then reneging late Thursday afternoon, at leastone other power supplier, Williams, announced signing a 10-year,1,400-MW deal with the state water resources department (DWR).Meanwhile, supply shortages eased considerably yesterday for thefirst time in about six weeks.

Southern LNG’s proposed enhancements to its Elba Islandvaporization facilities were granted preliminary approval onnon-environmental grounds by FERC yesterday. Southern plans toremove five existing vaporizers and replace them with moreefficient ones, resulting in increased send-out capability to 675MMcf/d from 540 MMcf/d at a cost of $14 million. Southern’s onlycapacity holder, El Paso Merchant Energy, will pick up the tab.

Following a warning last Thursday by Pacific Gas and ElectricCo. that its gas suppliers were cutting off supplies because theyweren’t getting paid for their gas, Energy Secretary BillRichardson stepped in and ordered the suppliers to continueproviding gas to PG&E through this Wednesday.

Following a warning last Thursday by Pacific Gas and ElectricCo. that its gas suppliers were cutting off supplies because ofPG&E’s financial trouble, Energy Secretary Bill Richardsonstepped in and ordered the suppliers to continue providing gas tothe utility through this Wednesday.

The same day that Avista Corp.’s utility affiliate filed arequest for a natural gas price adjustment with the Oregon PublicUtility Commission, the state’s largest provider, Portland GeneralElectric, rescinded its own request last week for a 17.1% rate hikethat would have taken effect next month.

Separate class action lawsuits tied to California’s natural gasand electricity price spikes were filed Monday alleging that a”conspiracy” dating back to 1996 between Sempra Energy’s twoutility companies and El Paso Natural Gas has contributed to thestate’s skyrocketing energy prices and short supplies.