Enron Mail

From:susan.scott@enron.com
To:
Subject:GIR settlement update
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Mon, 17 Apr 2000 09:07:00 -0700 (PDT)

See the attached. The proceeding certainly isn't over, but I think the
parties have done a great job of submitting a settlement that the Commission
will eventually approve, provided the parties present sufficient evidence to
support such a decision. (Unfortunately, we expect the settlement to be
protested.) Direct testimony is due May 5. To streamline things, the
parties are going to consolidate efforts and have divided up the testimony by
topic. Of course Transwestern got the Hector Road issue. I plan to put Mr.
Fawcett on as a witness. Our issue is not particularly controversial
anymore, so I do not anticipate rigorous cross-examination; nevertheless, I
will probably ask your assistance in preparing the witness for the hearing,
which begins May 30.
---------------------- Forwarded by Susan Scott/ET&S/Enron on 04/17/2000
03:53 PM ---------------------------


Jeffery Fawcett
04/17/2000 03:42 PM
To: Steven Harris/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Susan Scott/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Kevin
Hyatt/ET&S/Enron@Enron, mbaldwin@igservice.com, Jeff Dasovich/SFO/EES@EES
cc: Julia White/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Tim Aron/ET&S/Enron@ENRON

Subject: GIR settlement

As you know, approximately one year ago Transwestern first learned of a dark
cloud looming on the regulatory horizon in California. The CPUC in its draft
Order on the Gas Industry Restructuring proceeding in May, 1999 listed, among
a variety of "promising options," the institution of Mojave's "Hector Road"
as a commercial receipt point into the SoCalGas system. In fact, the CPUC
held in its "Findings of Fact" with regard to Hector Road that:

- It is unlikely that the market will accurately reflect the value of
transmission resources if SoCalGas were to define its marketable transmission
access in a way that did not include the Hector Road facilities, and

- The failure to provide at least window-style access through Hector Road
has resulted in lost opportunities for bringing relatively inexpensive gas
into Southern California.

The basis for the CPUC finding came from testimony taken during the
proceeding indicating that the use of Hector Road displaces deliveries to the
constrained delivery point at Wheeler Ridge. In other words, whatever could
be delivered by Mojave at Hector Road frees-up space at Wheeler Ridge, a
delivery point many in the marketplace considered more desirable.

As first articulated by SoCalGas in its draft settlement proposal in the
summer of 1999, the Hector Road point would be established as a formal
receipt point into SoCalGas, with rights equal to Transwestern's delivery
point at North Needles. With a meter capacity of 200 MMcf/d, and with the
market's apparent interest in securing additional capacity at Hector Road,
Transwestern was facing the real possibility of losing up to 200 MMcf/d of
access rights into SoCalGas at North Needles. Using an average transport
rate of $0.25/Mcf, the resulting loss in transport revenues would be $19MM
per year.

Through months of [seemingly endless] negotiations, and through an
educational process begun by Transwestern during one of the early settlement
meetings back in September 1999, Transwestern went from a party with a
"bullseye" clearly taped on its back, to a party that other stakeholders were
depending on for a principled solution to these receipt point issues. As it
stands now, the Appendix A to the Settlement Agreement, "Primary and
Secondary Receipt Point Access Rights" is nearly identical to the principles
outlined by Transwestern in that September settlement meeting.

I only re-state the obvious here to remind the group what their hard work has
accomplished. Not only am I proud to see that the resulting Settlement
Agreement filed with the CPUC today treats Transwestern and its shippers
equitably, but I'm proud that the work group we cobbled together for this
effort functioned like a "well oiled machine."

I thank each of you for your efforts to get to this point. We know we've
still got a lot of work to do to gain CPUC approval of this document, but no
matter what happens, we can be proud of what was accomplished here.



---------------------- Forwarded by Jeffery Fawcett/ET&S/Enron on 04/17/2000
02:49 PM ---------------------------



From: Susan Scott 04/17/2000 02:42 PM


To: "Sullivan, Glen J." <GSullivan@sempra.com<
cc: "'MBD'" <MDay@GMSSR.com<, "'Leslie, John'" <jleslie@LUCE.com<,
"'Elsesser, Evie'" <eke@aelaw.com<, "'McCrea, Keith'" <kmccrea@sablaw.com<,
"'Pocta, R. Mark'" <rmp@cpuc.ca.gov<, "'Dasovich, Jeff'"
<jdasovic@enron.com<, "'Beach, Tom'" <tomb@crossborderenergy.com<,
"'Burkholder, John'" <burkee@cts.com<, "'Amirault, Paul'"
<paulamirault@aec.ca<, "'Alexander, Michael'" <alexanms@sce.com<,
"'Chancellor, Craig'" <craigc@calpine.com<, "'Dingwall, B.'"
<bdingwall@unitedgas.com<, "'Douglass, Dan@SES'" <douglass@arterhadden.com<,
"'Fawcett, Jeff'" <jfawcet@enron.com<, "'Porter, Doug'" <porterdk@sce.com<,
"'Rochman, Michael'" <rochmanm@spurr.org<, "'Counihan, Rick'"
<rick.counihan@greenmountain.com<, "'Bayless, David'"
<david.bayless@utility.com<, "'Paul, Joe'" <jmpa@dynegy.com<, "'Jimison,
John'" <johnj@bcjlaw.com<, "'Foss, Robert'" <rfoss@coral-energy.com<, "McVay,
Nancy W - TPNWM" <NMcVay@socalgas.com<, "'Karp, Joe'"
<karpjos@sf.whitecase.com<, "'Johnson, Pamela'" <Johnson_pamela@lacoe.edu<,
Steven Harris/ET&S/Enron@ENRON

Subject: GIR settlement

Glen, I'm faxing you Transwestern's signature page and declaration. An
electronic version of the declaration is attached.