Fortnightly Magazine - September 2006

Waking Up To Compliance Risk

Do you know what your legal exposure is?

Enron has provided lessons for both corporations generally as well as the energy industry specifically. How can energy market participants effectively manage the risks inherent in complying with those regulatory reforms?

Mitigating Volatility Or Inviting Market Power?

FERC lowers the bar for obtaining market- based rates for natural-gas storage.

The first regulatory changes following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) are starting to pick up steam—and encountering multi-faceted criticism—as the gas industry reacts.

Fortnightly 40 Best Energy Companies

Superior asset management, exceptional cost discipline, and magnificent growth opportunities define the winners of our second annual financial ranking.

(September 2006) Consistent performance over time is the Holy Grail of corporate management, and a focus of many of the executives who made this year’s Fortnightly 40 ranking. Who returned to the list, and who fell off? And more important, why?

High Performance? Your Strategy Matters

Leadership requires alignment between performance measurement and strategic priorities.

A defense of the total return to shareholders (TRS). Our authors use TRS as the bottom-line performance indicator, and come up with a number of performance insights.

Merchant Transmission Redux

Financial transmission rights and regulated returns have not induced needed construction. Presenting an alternative model.

By almost any measure, the nation is running short of transmission, and the existing volume of investment cannot long continue to reliably accommodate retail-load growth and larger wholesale volumes. Factors like environmental opposition also have caused declines and delays in transmission investment, but it seems clear that financial transmission rights and regulated returns have not sufficed to induce the necessary construction. The authors propose a new model to reward investors who lower congestion costs.

Coal No More: What If?

An analysis of what risks would have to be taken to significantly reduce carbon emissions by using natural gas in the short run.

An analysis of what risks must be taken, in the short run, to significantly reduce carbon emissions with use of natural gas.

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