NEM is pleased to announce that InBusiness TeleServices, Inc. has joined the organization. InBusiness TeleServices, Inc. is one of the leading telephone-based sales companies in the deregulated energy industry. Barbara Roberts, President and CEO, Nancy Korman, V.P. of Database and Web Management, and Scott Maly, V.P. of Client Services, will represent InBusiness TeleServices, Inc. within NEM.

The January 22-23, 2001, Executive Committee Meeting will be held at the Paradise Point Resort. Sempra has blocked a limited number of rooms at a reduced rate of $175/night. Please contact Toni Pearce of Sempra as soon as possible at (619) 696-4286 to take advantage of the reduced rate. The Final Agenda for the Executive Committee meeting is available on the NEM Website and a hotlink to register for the meeting is provided here and on the NEM Website for your convenience.

Comments are due December 29, 2000, on EIA's Proposed Revised Gas Marketer Survey. NEM has prepared draft comments on the Proposed Survey arguing that the imposition of the Proposed Survey is a rulemaking, in excess of EIA's statutory authority, that was not promulgated in conformance with administrative law, and will have significant impacts on the industry and the U.S. economy. NEM urges that if the Proposed Survey is adopted, it should only be imposed on natural gas marketers on a voluntary basis, or alternatively, only in jurisdictions where 25% customer migration has been achieved and then only like the home heating oil industry. The full text of NEM's Draft EIA Comments is available on the NEM Website. The full text of EIA's Request for Comments and the Proposed Revised Gas Marketer Survey are available on the NEM Website.

FERC has amended its regulation on standards for business practices and electronic communications with interstate natural gas pipelines to incorporate the Version 1.4 standards promulgated by GISB. The regulations are to be implemented by the pipelines by May 1, 2001. Additionally, Commission Staff is to convene a technical conference on the adoption of a proposed regulation requiring pipelines to permit shippers to designate and rank contracts under which gas will flow on a pipeline's system. The full text of the Notice on the Business Practice Regulation and Conference on Cross-Contract Ranking is available on the NEM Website.

FERC issued an Order adopting emergency tariff amendments proposed by the CAISO in response to the recent declaration of a Stage 3 emergency. The amendments include the implementation of an interim price mitigation proposal, based on the Commission's proposed soft price cap, assessment of penalties against participating generators which refuse to operate in response to an ISO dispatch instruction during a system emergency, and assignment to Scheduling Coordinators, whose real-time demands exceed their real-time generation, of the CAISO's costs of obtaining energy through bids above the break point or through out-of-market dispatches. The full text of the CAISO's Emergency Tariff Amendment Filing and the Commission's Order Adopting the Tariff Amendments is available on the NEM Website.

In further response to the supply shortage in California, FERC issued an Order granting a temporary waiver of requirements for Qualifying Facilities (QFs). The Order grants a temporary waiver of fuel use restrictions for Small QFs and operating and efficiency standards for Cogenerator QFs. The Small QFs and Cogenerators must sell their excess production to load located in California through negotiated bilateral contracts. The waiver is effective immediately and ends January 1, 2001. The full text of the Order Granting Waiver of Requirements for Qualifying Facilities is available on the NEM Website.

NEM has submitted a Brief in the NYSEG proceeding arguing that market conditions warrant reshaping and restructuring of the back-out credit. NEM also urged that the back-out credit should be changed to include the full energy supply and commercial costs of serving retail load in the NYSEG service territory, be adjustable with wholesale market prices and include an adder of at least one cent pending a full NYSEG cost of service study. The full text of NEM's Cover Letter and Initial Brief are available on the NEM Website.

NYSEG argued in its Brief that flaws in the operation of NYISO have tainted market prices. NYSEG submitted it would be willing to move to a market-based credit, at least until the flaws with NYISO are corrected but rejected the imposition of an adder. Staff recommended in its Brief that a market-based credit be implemented with a floor equal to the current back-out credit. The full text of the Briefs of NYSEG and Staff are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission Staff has issued an Interim Pricing Report on NYISO that recommends reforming rules and procedures to prevent gaming, implementing a $150/MWh price cap, increasing market monitoring, granting NYISO retroactive refund authority, and imposing penalties on generators for price abuses. Comments are due on the Report by January 5, 2001. The full text of the Interim Pricing Report is available on the NEM Website.

NEM has submitted comments on the filing of the EDI Collaborative supporting the proposed use of the Internet as a data transfer mechanism and recommending consideration of XML. NEM urged the Commission adopt EDI on a uniform basis with other states in the region and argued against the use of the customer account number and meter number as validation points. The full text of NEM's Comments on the Filing of the EDI Collaborative is available on the NEM Website.

The plenary meeting in the POLR proceeding to be held December 19, 2000, at the Commission's Penn Plaza offices will begin at 8:30AM rather than 10:30AM as previously announced. The following plenary meeting will take place January 17-18, 2001, at the Commission's Albany offices. The meeting will address results of surveys issued in the proceeding and pricing issues related to the POLR function.

At a meeting held on December 12, 2000, the parties to the Third Party Supplier Fee proceeding agreed to put the matter on hold. The consideration of the propriety of the fee and the costs to be included has been postponed to August 1, 2001, and a meeting will be held after Labor Day 2001.

NEM has filed a response to the objections levied by FirstEnergy and Jersey Central that NEM's participation in the merger case be limited to issues of the impact of the proposed merger on competition in the relevant power markets and be conditioned upon NEM's filing and serving a complete list of the names and addresses of all the members on whose behalf it was intervening. The full text of NEM's Response is available on the NEM Website.

CG&E filed a proposed electric tariff and certified supplier tariff for Commission approval. The tariffs are to be effective February 2, 2001. The full text of the CG&E's Tariff Filing is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission has issued a Report and Draft Plan to the legislature recommending the deferral of retail electric metering services and the implementation of retail electric billing services as follows: 1) Licensed Competitive Service Providers (CSPs) and Aggregators are to bill all retail customers directly for services rendered (separate billing option) effective January 1, 2002; and 2) Licensed CSPs are to offer a consolidated billing service to all retail customers, with two options - an LDC consolidated billing option effective January 1, 2002 and a CSP consolidated billing option effective no later than January 1, 2003. The full text of the Commission's Report and Draft Plan, including Appendix A, Appendix B, and Appendix C are available on the NEM Website.

Commission Staff is soliciting marketers to participate on a committee with other stakeholders to develop recommendations on customer education on the natural gas customer choice program. Interested marketers should contact Sharon Theroux by December 21, 2000 at sharon.i.theroux@cis.state.mi.us. Meetings will begin in January 2001.