[BETA] Fortnightly

Irl F. Englehardt, president and CEO of Peabody Holding Co. Inc., was elected to a two-year term as chairman of the National Coal Association. Steven F. Leer, president and CEO of Arch Mineral Corp., was elected vice chairman. Englehardt will be the 49th industry executive to serve as chairman in NCA's 77-year history.

Gerald E. Putman was made senior v.p. of a new customer service business unit at New York State Electric & Gas Corp.

SIDE SUBHEAD

Everyone talks about them.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finding that the municipal preference in hydropower project relicensing cases did not apply to "orphaned" facilities. Facilities are considered orphaned if the current license holder files a notice of intent to apply for a relicense, but then fails to file a timely application.

Gas local distribution companies (LDCs) in Wisconsin must provide unbundled balancing services for transportation customers at cost-based rates under new rules adopted by state regulators. The new rules came out of a Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) investigation of LDC tariff changes required as a result of pipeline restructuring at the federal level.

The PSC ruled that balancing is required where an LDC is served by a pipeline with balancing provisions that contain penalties that default to the LDC, and hence to system sales customers.

The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (URC) has authorized Northern Indiana Public Service Co. to recover its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 636 pipeline transition charges under a rate design proposal that divides the charges between sales and transportation customers. Under the approved recovery plan, the gas local distribution company (LDC) will pass to all ratepayers on a volumetric basis those transition charges related to gas supply realignment and stranded investment.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has denied a request by Kentucky Utilities Co. (KU) to charge market-based rates for bulk-power sales. In a related action, the FERC called for a public hearing on KU's accompanying transmission tariff, which would establish point-to-point rather than network service.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has clarified the terms and conditions for default contracts designed for use on an interim basis when disputes arise over the sale or spinoff of pipeline-affiliated gas gathering systems.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a final order requiring Texas Utilities Electric Co. (TU) and its affiliate, Southwestern Electric Service Co., to provide network transmission service to Tex-La Electric Cooperative of Texas Inc. (Docket No. ER94-1385-000). Network service allows multiple points of receipt and delivery at a single system rate. Tex-La, a customer of Texas Utilities and a bulk-power supplier for seven distribution cooperatives in Texas, is seeking to buy power from third parties and transmit the power over TU's transmission system.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) is moving forward with a proposal to transfer jurisdiction over its mainline natural gas transmission facilities and storage system from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The natural gas pipelines at issue cross into the southwestern United States as well as Canada.

At a November 11 conference, "Canadian-Northeast Energy Trade: New Issues and Challenges," sponsored by the New England-Canada Business Council, Commissioner Donald F. Santa, Jr.