• FEATURE STORY:  Is it nostalgia for yesteryear?

• GOODMAN: Energy prices are window for proving competition’s worth

• Harvard's Hogan fears isolated fixes in marketplace

GOODMAN: Energy prices are window
for proving competition’s worth

Marketers -- and competition in general -- have a window of opportunity to prove their value to consumers, says NEMA President Craig Goodman.
     He's taking his cue from the New York PSC's decision to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade its website to provide consumers with as close to real-time energy prices as possible.
     It's New York's market-oriented response to sharply rising energy prices -- especially for the winter heating season.
     Goodman is urging his members to help by providing as much information about energy prices as possible to the PSC whose website already lists competitive offers.

Harvard's Hogan fears isolated
fixes in marketplace

Sees several issues pending at FERC as related to each other
     We asked William Hogan who runs the energy department at Harvard what he thinks of the latest trends at FERC and found that he's concerned about the big picture and its implications for investment.
     The response of FERC regulators has been to look to mandates for various kinds of investments, becoming more prescriptive along the way, he noted.
     That kind of trend is causing people to have second thoughts about where to put their money, he added.

Maryland SOS proposal to boost shopping

Large C&I shopping in Maryland if not already truly competitive is well on its way, the Maryland PSC's director of economics testified recently.
     In the year since large C&Is got the choice of either an hourly priced or fixed-price default service, the number of marketers serving them nearly doubled, said Calvin Timmerman, with an average of 10 in each IOU's territory.
     More than 70% of customers and 85% of load is being served by marketers.
     The fixed-price service option, incidentally, ended two months ago at all Maryland IOUs except Allegheny Power, he noted.

Why does Dwight Brown
want Southern Co Gas?

What got into Dwight Brown who runs Cobb EMC to offer to buy Southern Co Gas?
     We asked him.
     Cobb Energy in Marietta, Ga, has been buying gas via a contract with SCANA Energy Marketing but it's about to run out.
     Cobb Energy -- the for-profit firm not the co-op -- has been selling SCANA gas along with five other co-ops to 200,000 of their customers.
     Brown has been watching sales by the aggressive co-ops Walton EMC Gas and Coweta-Fayette who often have the lowest price monthly gas prices.
     Brown doesn't know why or how those two have the lowest prices in the Georgia market and he hasn't decided to join in the competition to have the lowest monthly price.