NEM is pleased to announce that Cantor Fitzgerald and Tradespark have been nominated to NEM's Executive Committee. Cantor Fitzgerald is a financial services conglomerate with operating units that are involved in a variety of market-based business initiatives. TradeSpark is the world's most comprehensive neutral exchange for energy traders. With TradeSpark's proven real time trading platform, you can solicit and execute trades with unprecedented speed, efficiency and cost-savings versus traditional voice-based trading. Harry Fry, Senior Managing Director, Cantor Fitzgerald, Robert Hayes, Chief Operating Officer, TradeSpark, and Jeff Bandman, Senior Vice President, Cantor Fitzgerald, and Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, eSpeed will represent Cantor Fitzgerald and Tradespark within NEM.

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 discounted registration fee for the conference has been extended to May 3, 2002. We are planning the reception and would appreciate an early head count. 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 last week, 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 full text of their Presentation is available on the NEM Website.

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.

NAESB will hold a meeting on May 8 and 9, 2002, to continue discussions on Wholesale Electric Quadrant (WEQ) segment identification and definitions. It is expected that the segments will be confirmed and preliminary definitions for the segments will be identified at that time. The number of representatives to the Board and the Executive Committee representing the WEQ are also be identified. The meeting will be held at Xcel Energy in Denver, Colorado.

A follow-up meeting will be held on May 29 and 30, 2002, to confirm decisions made at the Denver meeting and to continue discussions on the WEQ procedures for election of Board of Directors and Executive Committee representatives. The meeting will be held in Birmingham, Alabama. The full text of the May 8 and 9, 2002 Meeting Notice and Agenda are 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.

NEM's March/April 2002 article in Power and Gas Marketing magazine is entitled, "Standard Competitive Market Designs." The article recommends that: 1) fully allocated embedded cost-based unbundled rates are the foundation for a competitive retail market design; 2) unbundled rates based on incremental costs undermine a competitive market structure; and 3) proper structuring of stranded cost recovery is essential to competitive market design. The full text of the P&GM Article is available on the NEM Website.

Restructuring Today featured an article on NEM's comments on FTC's modifications to its Telemarketing Sales Rule including a proposed national Do-Not-Call list. The Article discussed NEM's arguments in opposition to the Do-Not-Call list including the significant burdens it would impose on the nascent competitive energy industry and the educational function that these calls provide to consumers. The full texts of the Restructuring Today Article and NEM's FTC Comments are available on the NEM Website.

The General Accounting Office, in the course of a review of electric restructuring efforts, requested a meeting with NEM this week. The topics of discussion included goals of restructuring, structures and operations developed as a result of restructuring, the success and performance of restructured markets, and lessons learned to date. NEM argued that the benchmark for measuring success of restructuring is when marketers can achieve national economies of scale and offer price competition to the smallest consumer. NEM discussed incentives to spur restructuring including fully allocated embedded cost-based unbundling with line item disclosures, tax credits for technology systems, access to usage information in a readable data protocol, and stranded cost recovery provided in federal law. Upon their request, NEM referred GAO to a number of its members, including wholesale and retail energy suppliers, software, billing, back office, and metering firms, and trading platforms.

SEC issued two rulemakings on disclosure requirements. SEC proposes to accelerate the due dates of quarterly and annual reports for companies with a public float of $75 million or more, that have been subject to the reporting requirements of Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act for at least a year before the filing of the report, and that have filed at least one annual report under the aforementioned Section of the Exchange Act. Annual reports are proposed to be filed 60 calendar days after the fiscal year end, quarterly reports are to be filed 30 days after the end of each of the first three quarters of the year, transition reports on Form 10-K are to be filed within 60 calendar days and transition reports on Form 10-Q are to filed within 30 calendar days. SEC also proposes that these companies disclose in annual reports where investors can obtain access to company filings, including whether the information is available on company websites, free of charge. Comments are due 30 days after the NOPR is published in the Federal Register. The full text of the NOPR on Accelerated Report Filing is available on the NEM Website.

SEC also issued a NOPR on disclosure of management transactions on Form 8-K. SEC proposes to add an additional item to Form 8-K requiring companies with equity securities registered under Section 12 to report: 1) transactions of each director and executive officer in company equity securities, including derivative securities transactions and transactions within the company; 2) arrangements by directors and officers for purchases or sales of company equity securities intended to satisfy the affirmative defense conditions of Securities Exchange Act Rule 10b5-1(c); and 3) loans of money to directors or executive officers that are made or guaranteed by the company or an affiliate of the company. Comments are due 60 after publication in the Federal Register. The full text of the NOPR on Disclosure of Management Transactions is available on the NEM Website.

The Commission will convene a conference on data and software standards in connection with Standard Market Design. The conference will be held on May 22, 2002, at 9:30AM. THe conference will focus on what should be standardized, if there should be a standard data model, the potential to develop data sets for software benchmarking, and transparent user interfaces. The full text of the Notice of Conference is available on the NEM Website.