$450M Trans Bay Cable on Schedule, City Project Manager Says Progress Energy Estimates Earnings, Cuts Capex Solar Reaches 'Grid Parity;' Sempra, Others Bullish Progress Inks Contract for Florida Nuclear Units CEC Holding Public Sessions on Three Power Plant Proposals Three New Arizona Regulators Sworn In Dynegy Cites Credit Turmoil in Dissolving LS Power Venture Outlook: Power Plants, Transmission, Climate Dominate CA Energy Entergy: Vermont Yankee Power Prices Are Good Enough Outlook: Energy Industry Awaits Changing of Guard at FERC Retiring CEC Head: No Need to Merge Energy Agencies CA Governor's Adviser Tied to TransBay Cable Firm Kansas Coal Plant Backers Likely to Try Again as CO2 Issue Looms Puget Sound Energy Privatization Gets Final OK CEC Head Leaves; Eyes Federal, State Energy Role Solar Economics, Logistics Questioned by LADWP Study ERCOT Considering $3B of Transmission Projects Reliant Completes Asset Sale to Hess Court Affirms FERC Order on Entergy Capacity Allocations West Virginia PSC Signs Off on Allegheny Energy Rate Increase FERC OKs Waiver for Barclays to Buy UBS Commodities Business FERC: Demand Response, Smart Meters Advancing, But Slowly New Mexico OKs First Solar Thermal Project Idaho PUC to Examine PacifiCorp Utility's Rate Hike Request Analysts: Obama, Cheaper Turbines to Lift Wind Power Oregon PUC Approves $121M PGE Rate Increase Venture Capital Continues to Seek Clean Tech, Study Shows

Nearly All Points Boosted by Colder Weather, Screen
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Prices rose by double-digit amounts at all points but one Monday. Colder weather was returning in most of the East and the previous Friday's 34.9-cent jump by February futures provided additional support for Monday's cash market. The return of industrial load from its typical weekend hiatus also played a role in the price strength. ( more )

Futures Continue Climb as East Braces for Wintry Mix
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
After climbing nearly 35 cents on reduced trading volume Friday, traders added another dime to the February natural gas futures rally on Monday as winter storms and freezing temperatures were expected to engulf the eastern United States later in the week. The front-month contract ventured back above $6 to close at $6.072, a gain of 10.1 cents.( more )

Raymond James Bearish Through 2009, Sees Recovery in 2010
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
A recovery for natural gas prices in 2009 is unlikely, but as the rig count declines, it should set up supply to drop substantially at the same time the economy begins to recover, setting up a much more bullish 2010, Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday. The energy team predicted that gas prices could average $8/Mcf by 2010, well above its $5 forecast for this year.( more )

Expanded Cove Point LNG Plant Makes Debut on New Year's Day
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
The expansion of the Dominion Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal facilities on the eastern shore of Maryland went into service on New Year's Day, said Dominion spokesman Dan Donovan. He declined to say when the expanded plant would receive its first LNG shipment.( more )

Gastar's Deep Bossier Well Produces at 41.2 MMcf/d
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Houston-based Gastar Exploration Ltd. reported completing its best producing well to date, the Belin #1, in two lower zones of the Deep Bossier play in East Texas, at an initial production (IP) rate of 41.2 MMcf/d.( more )

Alaska Utilities Face Supply Challenges as Contracts Wind Down
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Alaska's ENSTAR Natural Gas Co. is resorting to a previously unused tariff provision to secure gas supplies to cover what would be a 2.1 Bcf shortfall this year and a potential 9 Bcf shortfall in 2010. Meanwhile, contract talks between Anchorage-based Chugach Electric Association, the state's largest electric utility, and a trio of Cook Inlet gas producers are at a stalemate over how supplies should be priced. ( more )

Maritimes Nears Start of Phase IV Mainline Expansion
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC Monday asked FERC for authorization to start up its Phase IV expansion by Jan. 15. The project, which doubles the capacity of its existing pipeline, will support service from the Canaport liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal that is scheduled to be fully operational in the first quarter.( more )

Chesapeake Obtains $412M VPP for Anadarko, Arkoma Leaseholds
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Chesapeake Energy Corp. received $412 million for some natural gas properties in the Anadarko and Arkoma basins using yet another volumetric production payment (VPP). The Oklahoma City-based independent last month estimated it would raise $425-475 million for the assets.( more )

EnCana Files Plan for New BC Processing Plant
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Activity in British Columbia's (BC) Horn River Basin has been contributing to leasing records in the province, spurring new pipeline proposals and a proposal for a new gas processing plant, which EnCana Corp. filed recently with provincial regulators.( more )

Attacks on British Columbia Gas Infrastructure Continue
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Investigators believe the partial destruction of a metering shed at a wellhead site near the community of Tomslake, BC, was caused by a deliberate explosion and is the latest in a recent series of minor explosions in the area directed at Encana Corp. gas facilities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday. ( more )

Three New Arizona Regulators Sworn In
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 06, 2009
Three newly elected members of the five-member Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) were sworn into office Monday. Sandra Kennedy, Paul Newman and Bob Stump, all of whom have held past elected local and state offices, joined existing Commissioners Kris Mayes and Gary Pierce.( more )

Outlook: Energy in Regulatory Limbo Awaiting Next FERC Chair
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
As the nation gears up for new leadership in Washington, natural gas and electricity companies find themselves in kind of a regulatory limbo as they await word on who will be FERC chairman in the Obama administration.( more )

Protests, Vandalism Don't Sway BC Regulators on Sour Gas Pursuit
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
For the second time in three months Alberta has sent a message that fear will not be allowed to crumble a cornerstone of its natural gas supplies: "sour" reserves laced with lethal hydrogen-sulphide.( more )

Outlook: Economists See Shale Production as Damper on LNG
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
Want to know what the coming years will bring for importation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States? Then look back at 2008. The gas industry can expect more of the same, according to a model run by two Rice University economists. However, others suggest growth in global LNG production in 2009 will lead to increased U.S. imports.( more )

Analyst Sees Canadian Imports Marginalized
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
Steadily increasing U.S. natural gas production will gradually catch up with stagnant consumption over the next six years, reaching 23.3 Tcf a year, just a whisker away from the projected 23.7 Tcf demand in 2014, according to a recent forecast.( more )

California Sues Bush Administration on Endangered Species Rules
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
Alleging that long-standing endangered species protections are being "gutted," California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown last Monday filed a federal lawsuit seeking to stop new rules by the Departments of Interior and Commerce that were made final Dec. 16 and would allegedly eliminate the mandate for scientific review of federal agency decisions that might affect endangered species.( more )

Virginia's Plea for Delay of Offshore Sale Rejected
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) has rejected a request by Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine to delay a planned oil and natural gas lease sale off the state's coast.( more )

Retiring CEC Head: Don't Combine Energy Agencies
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
California should not merge its major energy-related agencies into one state energy department, the outgoing head of the California Energy Commission (CEC) told NGI last Monday. Currently, there is little overlap between the CEC and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Jackie Pfannenstiel said.( more )

Avista Seeks Rate Cuts in Idaho, Washington
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 05, 2009
Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. last Wednesday asked regulators in Idaho and Washington state to reduce the utility's retail natural gas rates to reflect the recent decline in wholesale energy prices. Avista asked for Idaho and Washington reductions of 4.7% and 3%, respectively, effective later in January.( more )

Energy Analyst Sees Sub-$6 Gas Throughout 2009
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
The recent decline in the price of domestic natural gas came partially in sympathy with plummeting crude oil prices, "but also because of the increasing fall gas storage surplus, which has occurred despite extended [hurricane] Gustav/Ike gas shut-ins, extremely low liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and colder-than-normal fall weather," an energy analyst said in a review.( more )

Horizontal Rig Count Declines at Faster Pace
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
The U.S. natural gas rig count is falling, as expected, but the horizontal drilling rig count has begun to markedly decline, with the Dec. 26 report indicating the largest single-week loss for the shale-directed rigs since 1991.( more )

Court Ruling Gives New Jersey Power to Block LNG Project
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
A federal district court in Washington, DC, has upheld the U.S. Maritime Administration's (MARAD) decision designating New Jersey as an "additional adjacent coastal state" that has the power to block Atlantic Sea Island Group LLC's (ASIG) proposed deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to be sited on a man-made island off the coasts of New York and New Jersey.( more )

Montana's Long Awaited Powder River CBM Plan Approved
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
Following years of legal wrangling, coalbed methane (CBM) development in Montana's Powder River Basin may be a go. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Tuesday issued a carefully worded Record of Decision (ROD), which would permit more than 18,000 natural gas wells to be drilled in the basin over the next 20 years.( more )

$7.4B Deal to Take Puget Sound Energy Private Gets Final OK
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
A $7.4 billion deal by a consortium of private investors to acquire Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) and take it private cleared a final regulatory hurdle Tuesday when the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) on a split 2-1 vote gave a heavily conditioned approval. WUTC approved a multi-party settlement from last summer that included its own staff (see Daily GPI, July 23).( more )

Utah Drops CNG Subsidy, Opens Up Market
from NGI's Daily Gas Price Index  January 02, 2009
The popularity of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in Utah may take a hit this summer when the price of the fuel, which had been subsidized for nearly 20 years, will be allowed to rise to reflect its actual cost.( more )