NEM is pleased to announce that KWI has been elected to the Executive Committee. KWI, a global company specializing in risk management and trading software for energy companies, helps clients execute forward market trading, portfolio management and risk management. KWI's primary product is kW3000(tm), a suite of integrated applications designed to manage risk and trading in the rapidly changing electricity and multi-commodity energy markets. KWI will be represented within NEM by Thomas (Trip) M. Ray III, President and General Manager, North America, Gordon Allott, Vice President Business Development, North America, David Bucknall, Chief Executive Officer, and Greg Keers, Chief Strategy Officer.

NEM's Risk Valuation, Management and Financial Accountability Taskforce meeting at the Georgetown Club, 1530 Wisconsin Ave. in Washington, DC will be held on April 19, 2002, beginning at 11AM and lasting no later than 5:30PM. The purpose of the meeting is to forge consensus on accounting and disclosure standards to promote the proper valuation of energy assets, equity securities and forward energy contracts, including derivatives. The full text of the Meeting Agenda is available on the NEM Website.

We currently have eighteen people confirmed to attend representing brokerage firms, accounting firms, power traders, generation owners, risk management firms, electronic trading platforms and financial services firms. We only have room for 20 and need a firm headcount to order food and decide whether we need a larger room at the Georgetown Club. Please RSVP as soon as possible. Call (202) 333-3288 or email info@energymarketers.com.

Senators, FERC, PUC and FTC Commissioners have confirmed for NEM's Annual Membership Meeting and National Restructuring Conference to be held June 20 and 21, 2002, at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, DC. An updated agenda, registration form and electronic brochure is hotlinked here for your convenience. Please note that the registration fee for the conference increases as of April 14, 2002. Also there are only a limited number of rooms at our discounted rate of $139/night.

NEM and EEI started collaboration on the drafting of a Master Margin and Netting Agreement. Many thanks to Chris Bernard and Marty Jo Rogers from Entergy-Koch, Dede Russo from Reliant, and Vince Duane from Mirant for their help in coordinating this effort.

At a meeting yesterday, the issues associated with netting agreements were discussed. Attorneys from Bracewell and Patterson gave a detailed discourse in the law of setoff as well as the Bankruptcy Code. The recommendations they discussed for the structure of a master netting agreement included cross-collateralization with counterparties receivables, joint and several liability for the counterparties, cross default and comprehensive termination and liquidation provisions, and exclusion of nonqualifed contracts or segmenting qualified contracts from non-qualified contracts. The full text of this presentation will be posted on the NEM Website when made available electronically.

Please note that the full Drafting Committee will meet on April 25, 2002, from 9AM to 4PM in Houston at the offices of Entergy-Koch located at 20 East Greenway Plaza, First Floor Meeting Facilities, Houston, TX. Those interested in helping to draft a standardized netting agreement should register by e-mailing name, title, company, phone, fax and email numbers to Esmeralda.Elizondo@entergykoch.com. General questions should be directed to Esmeralda at (713)544-4795. The full texts of the Drafting Committee Meeting Details, Registration Form, Draft Master Netting Agreement, Draft Cover Sheet, and Draft Collateral Annex are hotlinked here and available on the NEM Website.

NEM invites its members to a free "webinar" hosted by Cedar Enterprise Solutions to overview an exciting technology that Cedar has deployed on NEM's archives of regulatory pleading and policy statements. Session 1 will be held April 25, 2002, at 11AM EST, and Session 2 will be held April 26, 2002, at 10AM EST.

This technology can be especially helpful in: compliance & regulatory management, technology and research development, new business development & competitor intelligence, business strategy and CRM analytics, security of assets, staff, environment and public, and collaborative knowledge sharing and on line learning.

Please respond with your preferred time to NEM headquarters or Patrick Hogan, Vice President, Cedar Content Value Management, at patrick.hogan@cedar.com or (847)607-0310. All participants will also receive a White Paper on Energy and Utility Infrastructure Management using knowledge visualization applications.

FERC issued an options paper for "Resolving Rate and Transition Issues for Standardized Transmission Service and Wholesale Electric Market Design." The paper sets forth options related to the manner in which embedded costs of the transmission system will be recovered, the manner in which transmission rights will be allocated, the transition of customers under existing contracts to new service, and long-term generation adequacy. Parties are requested to file recommendations on which of the options should be included in the Giga-NOPR and the advantages and disadvantages of the options. An NEM summary on the document is available from headquarters. Comments are due May 1, 2002. The full text of the Options Paper is available on the NEM Website.

A Conference Call to Discuss NEM's position will be held on April 17, 2002, at 2PM Eastern Time. The phone-in number is 703-788-0600, and the Passcode is 209353.

FERC issued a NOPR proposing to remove the requirement that pipelines assign their upstream capacity to their firm shippers. FERC reasoned that since the unbundling of interstate gas sales from transportation has been completed for the most part, and since FERC has allowed unbundled open access pipelines to acquire capacity on other pipelines, the requirement is no longer necessary. Comments on the NOPR are due 45 days after publication in the Federal Register. The full text of the NOPR is available on the NEM Website.