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To: excardog who wrote (81165)	12/9/2000 12:10:44 PM
From: excardog	Respond to of 95453

Heating crisis looms for new U.S. energy secretary (UPDATE: Updates with Florida ruling in graph 7, weather and industry background, graph 9) By Tom Doggett WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The next U.S. energy secretary will have to deal with what is predicted to be the coldest winter in years, skyrocketing heating bills, and possible interruptions in natural gas and electricity supplies. If Republican George W. Bush is sworn in as president in late January, several members of Congress have been mentioned as possible choices for the top Energy Department job. They include Democratic Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana, Republican Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington and Democratic Rep. Ralph Hall of Texas. Gorton lost his job last month in a close race to high-tech millionaire Maria Cantwell. Other names circulating among Washington insiders as possible Bush picks for the nation's top energy post are Montana Gov. Marc Racicot, Texas Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza and Kenneth Lay, who heads the giant natural gas firm Enron Corp. (NYSE:ENE - news) Bush spokesman Ray Sullivan would not confirm who is being considered for the post but said Bush would ``move quickly'' to fill Cabinet positions as soon as the election contest was resolved. ``We recognize that energy prices have a significant impact on the economy, and therefore it's important for the next president to put an energy policy in place quickly,'' Sullivan said. DEMOCRATS' PREFERENCES UNCERTAIN No serious names have surfaced for the post from the camp of Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, who has challenged Florida's certification of Bush as winner of the state's 25 Electoral College votes. The Florida Supreme Court on Friday ordered the recounting of 9,000 disputed ballots cast in the Miami area and any from other Florida counties, keeping alive Gore's hope of winning the presidency. The new Chief Executive will have to move fast to put his energy secretary in place to tackle anger from consumers over rising heating bills. The National Weather Service predicts this winter will be colder than normal after three marked by above-average temperatures. When petroleum prices were low two years ago, energy companies cut their natural gas exploration and production, leading to stockpiles that observers fear may be too low for the 2000-01 season. The issue is not entirely new. Almost a year to the day before the Jan. 20, 2001, presidential inauguration, Energy Secretary Bill Richardson was preparing for several town hall meetings in the Northeast to hear complaints from consumers about what were then record high prices and low supplies of heating oil. DEPARTMENT'S PREDICTIONS OF COSTS This time round, the Energy Department is predicting that the average family will be stuck with natural gas bills 62 percent higher than last winter and heating oil costs up 38 percent. Picking a member of Congress would be a smart political move for Bush, because an energy nominee who is a fellow lawmaker would probably win easy approval by the U.S. Senate, according to congressional sources. If he becomes president, Bush's selection for energy secretary is expected to get tough scrutiny from Democrats to see if the nominee has close ties to the oil industry. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, have been accused of being in the pocket of multinational oil firms because of their former employment in the energy sector and the huge political contributions oil firms made to their campaign. Choosing a Democrat would show that Bush was trying to reach across party lines and also remove a Democratic lawmaker from Congress, strengthening Republican power in the House and Senate. Hall, 77, is the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Power Subcommittee and supports many of Bush's energy policies, including a controversial plan to allow oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Breaux, 62, represents a state that is a large producer of oil and natural gas. Gorton, 72, served on the Senate Energy Committee.

To: excardog who wrote (81165)	12/9/2000 6:02:33 PM
From: Douglas V. Fant	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 95453

excardog, You raise a point that I tried to share with an official in the Arizona State Government in Phoenix last week. Reagrdless of whether you are located in Oregon,Washington, Nevada, Arizona,Utah, Montana, Idaho, Colorado, or New Mexico, be aware that once the three regional transmission organizations in the west begin to function- RTOWest in the Pacific Northwest, Cal ISO in California, or Desert STAR in the Southwest, that power producers will be able to move power more freely around the Western grid. So it will be easier for a generator sitting in Oregon to say "hmm, $1200/megawatt hour in California, I'm sending my power south-goodbye." This will cause two things- California's power problems will be somewhat alleviated, and consumers located in all of the western States will now have to compete with California's Silicon Valley to buy power. There are no guarantees- But my guess is that rates for electricity should begin to rise for consumers in adjacent states like Oregon.....