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Need a reason to embrace the future of the power industry? Howabout 10 reasons? Several U.S. utility executives last week offeredtheir upbeat take on the power generation and natural gas outlookfor the next five years, with El Paso Energy, Reliant Energy,Dynegy Inc. and Williams Energy Services giving a birds-eye view ofwhat’s ahead during a forum at PowerMart 2000 in Houston.

In a move that is likely to send ripples through the market,particularly around Chicago, the 1.325 Bcf/d Alliance Pipelineextended its commercial in-service delay last week to Nov. 13 fromOct. 30. Pipeline officials said moisture and debris in the linecaused the delay.

Calpine Corp. is planning to sell 400 MW on a fixed-price basisfor 30 months to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in the firstbilateral electricity deal for a California utility sinceregulators agreed to allow such transactions in the wake of thesummer’s wholesale price and supply problems.

The transmission market has become one of the most politicized issues of the day, and while the United States needs more generation, there remains no clear vision of how to make the entire system work more efficiently, according to experts speaking at PowerMart 2000 in Houston last week.

Anadarko Energy Services has accused Mountain Energy Corp., agas marketer in Kansas City, MO, and the company owners ofallegedly defrauding it out of million of dollars throughnon-payment of natural gas, as well as theft of gas in storage.

BP, touting its leadership role as a responsible energy company,said last week it is completing plans to decrease its Houston areaNOx emissions through the construction of new cogenerationfacilities at its Texas City and Chocolate Bayou refining andchemical sites.

The average price of electricity in the United States decreased in 1999 for the sixth consecutive year to the lowest rates since 1990. The total decline in rates since 1994 is 3.6%, according to information released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in “Electric Sales and Revenue 1999.”

“It looked like the screen and cash were in a race to see whichone could go downhill farthest and fastest.” A marketer’s commentaccurately summed up a day that more than ever indicated the bloomis quickly coming off this year’s price rose. Double-digit declinesdominated Thursday, with most exceeding 30 cents, and many GulfCoast and Midcontinent pipes experienced sub-$5 territory for thefirst time in months.

Yesterday was not a good time to walk away from your futurespositions to enjoy the Indian Summer weather. Just one week ago,near-month futures hit a record high at $5.78, but by the close ofregular trading yesterday, the November contract had settled belowthe psychologically important level of $5 for the first time sinceSept. 8.