William

FERC Commissioner William Massey, who was first named to the agency nearly a decade ago, signaled this week that he’s interested in pursuing another term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission when his term expires in June.

FERC Commissioner William Massey, who was first named to the agency nearly a decade ago, signaled last week that he’s interested in pursuing another term at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission when his current stint ends in June.

According to renowned hurricane forecaster Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, it’s never too early to start thinking about the next hurricane season, particularly the 2003 season, which is expected to be more active than normal. Gray expects 12 named storms, eight hurricanes and three intense hurricanes (category 3-5) in 2003.

According to renowned hurricane forecaster Dr. William Gray of Colorado State University, it’s never too early to start thinking about the next hurricane season, particularly the 2003 season, which is expected to be more active than normal. Gray expects 12 named storms, eight hurricanes and three intense hurricanes (category 3-5) in 2003.

Robert G. Phillips has been named chairman of the board of El Paso Energy Partners, at the same time El Paso Corp. Chairman William A. Wise, President H. Brent Austin, and another member of the corporation board, Malcolm Wallop, resigned from the partners board. El Paso Corp. is the general partner and owns 26% of El Paso Energy Partners. The company said the moves were “designed to align the partnership with certain corporate governance recommendations recently announced by the New York Stock Exchange. Phillips has been on the partners board since 1998.

The war of words continues between El Paso Corp. Chairman William Wise and major shareholder Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., the former chairman of The Coastal Corp., whose company merged with El Paso last year. A three-page letter sent last Tuesday by Wyatt, which took to task the senior management, mark-to-market accounting and off-balance sheet transactions, evolved into an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Wednesday, where Wise defended his company’s businesses transactions, and assured regulators that all of the charges could be refuted.

At the urging of U.S. Rep. William J. Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) and 22 other House lawmakers, the General Accounting Office (GAO) has agreed to carry out another review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to assess how the agency’s deregulation activities and its failure to properly oversee energy companies have directly affected consumers.

FERC Commissioner William Massey last Thursday voiced concerns that the plans of several electric utilities to join grid operators based outside of their companies’ own regions could lead to the formation of not one, but two poorly crafted regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in the United States.

The round-trip energy marketing scandal claimed another victim Friday, after CMS Energy Corp. announced the resignation of William T. McCormick as chairman and CEO. The Dearborn, MI-based company’s board of directors will establish a special committee of independent directors in the next week to investigate “matters surrounding round-trip trades” conducted by the CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (CMS-MST) unit, and in turn, the company plans to amend “as soon as practical” its 2001 10-K to restate its financial statements for 2000 and 2001 to eliminate all revenue and expense related to the wash trades.