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It appeared that many North American residents were destined to experience a “White Christmas,” but likely many wouldn’t be very happy about it as blizzard-like conditions were expected to cause major transportation snarls. Despite the usual softness associated with an extended holiday weekend, prices were up strongly at virtually all points Thursday due to projections of widespread harsh winter weather.

Stepped-up regulation at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) wouldn’t adversely affect Sempra Energy’s joint energy trading venture, company executives said Friday. “It’s probably going to be fine for us,” CFO Mark Snell said during a quarterly earnings conference call.

Even if oil prices were to reach an unheard of $100/bbl, the price spike wouldn’t have much of an effect on domestic natural gas production or drilling, analysts with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Direct (S&P) said in a report issued last week.

Even if oil prices were to reach an unheard of $100/bbl, the price spike wouldn’t have much of an effect on domestic natural gas production or drilling, analysts with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Direct (S&P) said in a report issued on Monday.

Marketer rankings by volume clearly do matter; otherwise energy companies wouldn’t go out of their way to deceive investors and counterparties by doing “round-trip” or “wash” trades, which are purely designed to boost volumes and trading revenues. Reliant, Dynegy and CMS last week all admitted to round-trip trading, in which two companies buy and sell back a given volume of gas or power at the same price to give the appearance of larger trading operations.

Despite his promise to the gas industry last year that he wouldn’t change the Pipeline Safety Act of 1995 (see Daily GPI, March 19, 1999), Congressman Bob Franks (R-NJ), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, who also is running for a Senate seat in his home state, introduced a bill last week that would do just that. His legislation joined a growing stack of pipeline safety bills that have been introduced this session.

Despite his promise to the gas industry last year that he wouldn’t change the Pipeline Safety Act of 1995 (see Daily GPI, March 19, 1999), Congressman Bob Franks (R-NJ), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee — who also is running for a Senate seat in his home state — introduced a bill last week that would do just that. His legislation joined a growing stack of pipeline safety bills that have been introduced this session.

Concerned that a threshold number of Atlanta Gas Light (AGL)customers in certain warmer regions of Georgia may not switch toalternative suppliers by the next winter heating season, theGeorgia Public Service Commission is taking action to changeGeorgia’s gas competition law, SB 216, to get AGL out of themerchant function possibly by next fall.