Wish

A study of North American natural gas markets topped the wish list of 11 potential study projects proposed by the Energy Department (DOE) for the National Petroleum Council (NPC) at the council’s annual meeting Wednesday in Washington.

As much as CMS Energy Corp. might wish it to be true, the rumorthat Dynegy Corp. may acquire it just doesn’t fit the profile ofwhat the energy marketer has been on a path to do recently,according to a Houston financial analyst who currently tracksDynegy for investors.

It could be argued everyone is a stakeholder in electricrestructuring, and yesterday it seems just about everyone gottogether and weighed in at Congress with the issue. A broad-basedgroup of organizations has developed a list of 23 principles itbelieves should be considered in any federal restructuringlegislation.

California’s regulatory process for adding merchant power plantsand repowering existing merchant sites is likely to get morecomplicated and time-consuming, based on discussions at a Jan. 25one-day energy roundtable on market and infrastructure issuessponsored by the California Public Utilities Commission in SanDiego.

FERC last week played Santa Claus to the natural gas industry bygranting its wish for a second extension of the deadline forcomments on the mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR)addressing short-term capacity issues and notice of inquiry (NOI)focusing on long-term transportation issues (RM98-10, RM98-12]. Butit did not close the door on those few who might want to filecomments under the current schedule.

FERC yesterday played Santa Claus to the natural gas industry bygranting its wish for a second extension of the deadline forcomments on the mega-notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR)addressing short-term capacity issues and notice of inquiry (NOI)focusing on long-term transportation issues (RM98-10, RM98-12]. Butit did not close the door for those few who might want to filecomments under the current schedule.