NEM's Fall 2003 Leadership Roundtable will be held October 7-8, 2003. Centrica has generously offered to host the meeting at the fabulous Queen’s Landing Inn and Conference Resort at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. The NEM rate will only be available through August 18, 2003. Please reserve your room early at (905) 468-2195.

The easiest way to arrive is to fly into Buffalo and drive across the border. However, there is shuttle service available at the Toronto Airport. Given the size, diverse expertise and desire of the group to develop detailed advocacy positions there will be break out sessions for (1) Wholesale, Trading, Credit, Clearing, Price Reporting/Manipulation issues, (2) Retail, National Consumer Education, and PR issues, (3) Technology Standards and Implementation issues. Detailed agendas for each policy team will be available on the NEM Website shortly. All members are encouraged to attend. Prospective members are also invited subject to space availability.

A block of rooms will be reserved for October 6-7, 2003, at the rate of $265/night (Canadian). Registration Information is available on the NEM Website.

The Winter Executive Committee Policy and Planning Meeting is scheduled for January 20th and 21st, 2004, in Houston, Texas.

Please also mark your calendars for March 31 and April 1, 2004, for NEM's Annual Membership Meeting and National Restructuring Conference. It will be held in Washington, DC at the Capitol Hyatt. Chairman Wood, NARUC President-elect Wise, NJBPU President Jeanne Fox and a number of other important speakers have already confirmed. If you wish to be listed as a sponsor of this event, please contact headquarters ASAP as advertisements are coming out shortly. Registration Information is available on the NEM Website.

NEM is now providing a a special section on its Website to be used for the NEM Technology Policy Development Team. The purpose is to assist members and government agencies in providing information and discussing the development of standards for data exchange in the energy industry. Members will have the ability to submit information on such things as standards, discussion papers, any information on relevant pilot projects, and so on. The site also provides a template to submit documents as well as agendas and minutes of Team meetings. The Technology Policy Section of the Website can be accessed using this hotlink. There will be a conference call of all those interested in Technology Policy Development on August 21, 2003, at noon eastern time. The dial in number will be 703-788-0600 and the pass code will be 209353.

The meeting with Chairman Flynn has been scheduled for 10:30 AM on September 30, 2003, in Albany. NEM will hold pre-meeting conference calls to discuss the Agenda items for the meeting. The first conference call will be held on August 26, 2003, at Noon Eastern Time. The last conference call will be held on September 23, 2003, at Noon Eastern Time. The dial in number will be 703-788-0600 and the pass code will be 209353. Please mark your calendar for the meeting and the conference calls and let Headquarters know as soon as possible if you plan to attend. Also please send any suggestions for the agenda that you think can properly be added. The attached Agenda has passed ethics review.

The Senate approved an energy policy outline (84-11) Thursday night identical to a bill that was approved by a Democratic-controlled Senate a year ago. To win Democratic agreement, Republicans promised to allow separate votes this year on strengthened enforcement of energy-market manipulation and on climate control. Senate Republicans said they agreed to adopt last year's bill because they plan to write provisions of their choosing when they meet with House negotiators later this year to work out differences between House and Senate energy bills.

Important provisions of the 2002 bill include: 1) FERC's authority to a) determine just and reasonable market-based rates, including consideration of market power, market nature and response mechanisms, and reserve margins, b) order retroactive refunds, and c) approve mergers; 2) incorporation of the Western Governors' proposal on an electric reliability organization providing greater authority to NERC; 3) requiring FERC to issue rules establishing an electronic information system to disseminate information on the availability and pricing of wholesale electric energy and transmission services, including the requirement that brokers, exchanges and other market-making entities provide statistical information about the amount and sale price of wholesale electric energy sales; 4) requiring access to transmission by intermittent generators; 5) repealing PUHCA but providing for FERC and state commission access to holding company and affiliate books and records; 6) establishing an Electric Energy Market Competition Taskforce; 7) setting forth amendments to PURPA such as a) requiring electric utilities to provide service under real-time pricing and/or time of use rates upon customer request, b) requiring electric utilities to provide access to the local distribution grid and competitive pricing for distributed generation, combined heat and power, and district heating and cooling systems, c) ending the mandatory obligation for electric utilities to purchase and sell electric energy from a qualified cogeneration facility or small power production facility if the facility has access to an independently administered, auction-based day-ahead and real-time wholesale electric market, and d) requiring electric utilities to make net metering available upon consumer request; 8) requiring FTC to issue rules that a) require electric utilities to make consumer information disclosures on the nature and price of services rendered as well as access, exit, stranded cost and customer service charges, b) prohibit electric utilities from disclosing customer information without approval except when information is shared to facilitate customer switching, c) prohibit slamming and cramming of electric customers, and d) may include requirements that electric utilities provide access to aggregate consumer information; 9) establishing a renewable portfolio requirement to be phased in from 1% to 10% of a retail electric supplier's annual amount sold beginning in 2005 through 2020; 10) providing for construction of a natural gas pipeline from the Alaskan North Slope into the U.S.; and 11) providing a deduction, not to exceed $30, for qualified new or retrofitted energy management devices.

In jettisoning this year's Republican energy bill, Senate GOP leaders would give up some measures they had insisted on after control of the Senate shifted back to their party this year. These include loan guarantees for half a dozen new nuclear power plants. Domenici said he will not offer that proposal in the House-Senate conference. A few issues have bipartisan support, including doubling production of ethanol, a corn-based gasoline additive, and restrictions on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's attempts to open the nation's power transmission system to more long-distance deliveries of electricity. The full text of the 2002 Senate Energy Bill is available on the NEM Website. The full text of the senate bill as passed this week will be available on the NEM Website when it is available in electronic form.

FERC announced its intent to withdraw the authority to sell electric power at market-based rates from 40 power marketers that have failed to file their Electric Quarterly Reports unless they file the missing reports by August 27, 2003. On April 24, 2003, FERC sent letters to 423 companies reminding them that they were required to file the quarterly reports. None of the 40 companies addressed in this order responded to the letter.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) released a report that urged FERC to tell Congress the specific data the agency needs to adequately monitor wholesale electricity markets and ask for the authority to get it. The Report stated that restructuring has substantially changed the collection, use, and sharing of electricity information at some agencies and has exposed gaps in the federal government’s collection of this information. The Report stated that restructuring has most profoundly affected FERC by dramatically changing how FERC performs its mission of ensuring fair and reasonable prices and by shifting its focus from periodic reviews of cost information to monitoring current market conditions. In order to monitor current market conditions, FERC needs to access market information on wholesale transactions; however, no federal agency, including FERC, has access to complete and timely information on the operations of electricity markets and market participants, exposing gaps in key information. According to the Report, such information gaps exist primarily because FERC is limited in its authority to collect information for full and effective market oversight and because it lacks specific authority to collect current information that may lead to market participants challenging these collection activities. The GAO stated that as long as these information gaps persist, FERC will be unable to oversee electricity markets in a comprehensive manner. Because of the importance of having timely, reliable, and complete information, the GAO recommended that FERC take action to resolve its information gaps. As part of this action, the GAO recommended that FERC present its findings to Congress because information-related issues raised by restructuring may require congressional action to ultimately be resolved. FERC generally agreed with the conclusions, specifically that its authority to collect information has not kept pace with the changing electricity market, and added that it will have the results from its information assessment at the end of 2003. The full text of the GAO Report is available on the NEM Website.