The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requiring an interstate pipeline company to sell excess low-cost storage gas supplies to its sales customers at cost, on the theory that ratepayers who bear risk for losses in industry restructuring should retain gains from the same process.

The pipeline, Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co., had found that excess gas was available after it had cut sales operations as part of the market restructuring ordered by the FERC.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Refusal to Wheel. Federal judge allows rural electric co-op to proceed with antitrust suit against PacifiCorp, ruling that doctrine of state action immunity does not insulate a regulated investor-owned electric utility from antitrust action for allegedly refusing to sell to sell power to others for resale to customers, or for allegedly refusing to wheel power generated by other suppliers.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has identified 13 nuclear plants that warrant increased NRC regulatory attention. These plants will remain on the NRC "watch list."

No additional nuclear plants were added to the NRC watch list. But one plant - Indian Point 3, operated by the New York Power Authority - was removed from the list. Indian Point 3 had been placed on the list in June 1993, and now has been removed due to improved performance.

At his first meeting as chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, James Hoecker announced that he was assigning responsibility for certain important issues to FERC members.

At the June 25 meeting, Hoecker assigned the key responsibility for reliability issues to Commissioner Vicky Bailey. Bailey will track reliability developments at NERC, DOE and around the nation. Hoecker assigned responsibility for merger policy issues to Commissioner William Massey. Commissioner Donald Santa Jr. and General Counsel Susan Tomasky were assigned the oversight of FERC's complaint procedures.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on June 25 conditionally approved the restructuring of the New England Power Pool into an independent system operator, even though many of the details remain under negotiation.

The FERC also approved on an interim basis the transfer of control of NEPOOL public utility members' transmission facilities to the ISO on July 1 (Docket No. EC97-35-000).

To insure NEPOOL's independence, the FERC changed NEPOOL's definition of "affiliate," a relationship indicating 50-percent ownership, to one indicating 10-percent ownership.

A report from the Northeast-Midwest Institute has found that the Tennessee Valley Authority, Bonneville Power Administration, and the three other power marketing administrations must relinquish their preferential treatment and subsidies if consumers are to enjoy the rewards of electric competition.

Federal Power Dinosaurs - Reforming TVA and PMAs in a Competitive Electricity Environment said that as electric industry competition is introduced, lawmakers cannot ignore public or government-owned power companies.

An administrative law judge at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has recommended approval of the proposed three-way merger of WPL Holdings, IES Industries, and Interstate Power Co. to form Interstate Energy Corp.

Earlier this year, the companies and the FERC staff reached an agreement on market power mitigation. One stipulation was that the utilities had to contract for purchase of transmission capacity to interconnect the three utility systems. A portion of that capacity would be made available to other utilities on a first-come basis.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing Rochester Gas & Electric Co. for allegedly threatening and attempting to bribe the University of Rochester and for its anti-competitive power supply contract with the school.

The Justice Department called the suit an "effort to loosen the stranglehold" the utility has over the university providing electricity to Rochester.

The lawsuit, filed June 24 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, claims that Rochester Gas & Electric tried to coerce the university into abandoning plans to build a cogeneration plant.

In two separate cases, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the first time has approved an analytical framework for examining vertical market power concerns raised by convergence mergers of gas and electric companies. This new framework applies when market power in one sector (such as natural gas) threatens competition in another (e.g., electricity).

In the first case, the FERC on June 25 conditionally approved the disposition of jurisdictional facilities in the proposed merger of two holding companies, Enova Corp.

Midwest panel fears service decline, sees small companies as speed bumps on road to competition.

"Mergers and restructuring" could have described the panel, but "Four Weddings and a Funeral" gave the session the cinematic spin it demanded.

Craig A.