The Chapter 11 reorganization plans for The Columbia Gas System, Inc. (CGS) and Columbia Gas Transmission Corp., its principal pipeline subsidiary, were confirmed on November 15 by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Helen Balick. The reorganization plans call for a distribution of about $2.3 billion to pay debt owed by the corporation prior to its Chapter 11 filing, plus another $1.1 billion in interest on that debt. According to CGS chairman Oliver G.
The decision in September by Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr., millionaire businessman sans political experience, to launch a bid for the White House in 1996 prompts comparison with another millionaire businessman and political neophyte, Wendell L. Willkie, who defied conventional wisdom 55 years ago and won the GOP nomination to oppose Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election.
Forbes himself relishes the comparison.
Change was the operative word this year in New Orleans at the annual gathering the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Bob Anderson, Montana commissioner and outgoing president of NARUC, cited global competitiveness, technology and a political swing toward state's rights in his opening address. "State commissions have to respond to these powerful forces," he warned.
Theory and experience teach that commercial market research
can be of very poor quality. What does that mean
for regulators and utility managers?
How can regulators and utility managers know whether and to what extent to trust commercially prepared market research?
Finding that Enron Storage Co. lacks market power, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved its request for market-based storage rates for firm and interruptible natural gas service under section 311 of the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, subject to conditions (Docket No. PR94-2-000). Enron proposed that rates for individual storage services be determined by the marketplace and agreed to by itself and the customer through arm's-length negotiations.
Every year, Public Utilities Fortnightly holds a forum electric utility executives. And another for gas utility executives. And another for state regulators.
This year we decided to ask utility customers what they think.DuPont, the country's number one chemical company, operates in 70 countries. It is, perhaps, best known for its Teflon products, but it also makes refrigerants, pigments, fibers (Lycra), nylon resins, electronics, medical products, and many other products.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has accepted proposed open-access, point-to-point, and network transmission service tariffs filed by Tampa Electric Co. (TE), effective November 14 (Docket No. ER95-1775-000) and subject to the outcome of its open-access Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (mega-NOPR) proceeding. TE says the tariffs substantially conform to the pro forma tariffs proposed under the mega-NOPR, and were calculated using the methods outlined there.
allow choice between price, reliability, and scheduling.
Customers with a choice are demanding, and getting, lower electric bills. These customers generally include municipals and large industrials. Municipals, as wholesalers, gained access to alternative suppliers via the Energy Policy Act of 1992.
On November 8, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a major rate settlement on pipeline corrosion issues for the owners of the Trans Alaska Pipeline Systems (TAPS), based on a November 1994 agreement in principle among the parties. The settlement results from an alternate dispute resolution (ADR) technique that employed a mini-trial and involved high-level representatives for all parties.
When economic reformers in the old Soviet Union searched for a metaphor to describe their move to a market economy, they a spoke of a horseman jumping a ditch. The true test of a strategy was that it carried you to the other side. It was no time for half-measures.
Electric utility regulators face a similar challenge.
