NEM booked the new Embassy Suites Hotel Washington D.C. Convention Center for the Annual Spring Membership Meeting and Restructuring Conference on April 29 and 30, 2008. Please register at this hotlink. Hotel accommodations have also been arranged at this facility located at 900 10th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001. NEM has secured preferred hotel rates of $259.00 per night. Please call (202) 739-2001 to make your reservations. A final agenda will be released shortly.

Thus far, we have confirmed the following featured speakers for the event: US House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), FERC Commissioner Marc Spitzer, FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff, CFTC Commissioner Michael Dunn, New York PSC Chairman Garry Brown and Massachusetts DPU Chairman Paul Hibbard.

Please call headquarters for sponsorship opportunities for the Spring Event as advertisements are currently being developed. Your attendance, participation and sponsorship of this event is needed and would be greatly appreciated.

Following up on its previous notice of inquiry, FERC issued a proposed rulemaking on its capacity release policies. NEM and a diverse group of stakeholders submitted comments on the rulemaking, including retail gas marketers, wholesale gas suppliers, generators, state PUCs, utilities, producers, pipelines, end users and others. NEM submitted comments recommending that: 1) a retail choice exemption to the shipper must have title rule be adopted; 2) the definition of exempt Asset Management Agreements should include transactions entered into by marketers serving retail choice customers; 3) Commission enforcement of shipper must have title rule violations should consider the nature of the underlying conduct; 4) FERC should reconsider its proposal to remove the rate ceiling on short-term capacity releases in light of potential negative consequences for retail market development; and 5) if (notwithstanding negative retail market implications) the rate ceiling on short-term capacity releases is lifted, it should be accompanied by a retail access bidding exemption. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

Of particular note, the New York Public Service Commission and Public Utilities Commission of Ohio submitted comments on the retail implications of the rulemaking. The NYPSC recommended that: 1) capacity releases made under state retail choice programs should have full exemption from bidding and tying prohibitions; 2)FERC’s proposal to address the eligibility of state-regulated retail access programs for the AMA exemptions by requiring LDCs to seek a waiver from the bidding requirements and tying prohibitions on a case-by-case basis is not reasonable; and 3) the AMA exemption from the tying prohibition be extended to releases of storage capacity undertaken pursuant to state retail access programs. PUCO recommended that: 1) “in Ohio, capacity releases made by the local distribution companies (LDCs) to marketers participating in state-mandated unbundling (Choice) programs should be exempted from market-based pricing so long as the retail markets have not fully matured and adequate protections exist to ensure that neither the LDC nor a participating Choice marketer is advantaged or disadvantaged from such an arrangement”; 2) FERC should examine the concept of a statewide waiver where state retail choice programs are developing; 3) many of the exemptions for AMAs should be duplicated for retail choice programs.

A Summary of Stakeholder Comments submitted to FERC is available on the NEM Website.

FERC recently issued Order 704 and corresponding Form 552 requiring annual reporting of wholesale natural gas transactions. Form 552 is due on an annual basis commencing May 1, 2009, for the 2008 reporting year. NEM filed a petition for clarification related to difficulties in assessing the appropriate reporting categories for certain transactions under Form 552. For instance, how a “NYMEX Plus” priced contract should be categorized, how pricing is to be reported when an initial contract is priced at “NYMEX Plus” with the option for a buyer to trigger a fixed price at a future date, and whether volumes priced as “NYMEX Plus” are intended to be excluded from reporting as “any type of financially-settled transaction." NEM requested that the Commission consider instituting a technical compliance forum to provide stakeholders with a more flexible means of raising questions about the new reporting requirements inasmuch as reporting questions will continue to be encountered throughout the reporting year. The proposed technical compliance forum could take the form of a combination of measures such as a FERC hotline, a designated page on the FERC website for Order 704 and Form 552 including frequently asked questions (that could be posted anonymously with a FERC response), a designated FERC contact person, periodic technical conferences, and a document of technical clarifications. Similar to NEM's request for a technical compliance forum, AGA requested that FERC Staff convene web conferences or informal workshops to field questions and generate a FAQ page for industry guidance on Form 552.

The full texts of NEM's Petition for Clarification, FERC Order 704 and Reporting Form 552 are available on the NEM Website as well as a Summary of Stakeholder Petitions filed on the reporting requirement.