NEM is pleased to announce that EnergyClear Corporation has been nominated to the Executive Committee. EnergyClear Corporation is the first industry owned and sponsored clearinghouse for over-the-counter (OTC) energy markets. EnergyClear Corporation will be represented by Dennis Earle, President, and Holly Arney, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Risk Management, within NEM.

NEM is pleased to announce that Shell Energy Services has been elected to the Executive Committee. Shell Energy Services markets natural gas to residential and small commercial customers in competitively structured markets in the United States. Shell Energy Services will be represented by Steven Murray, President and CEO, and Harry Kingerski, Manager of Regulatory Affairs, within NEM.

A first rough draft of NEM's "National Guidelines for Credit, Risk Management and Financial Accountability" has been prepared. The document has been circulated to the Executive Committee and the taskforce formed to address these issues. The document is not yet ready for public circulation. However, member comments are welcomed and encouraged. The draft is available on the NEM website. Please forward your comments on the document to headquarters by tomorrow, September 13, 2002. This document will be an issue for discussion at NEM's Executive Committee and Industry Leadership Roundtable on September 26, 2002, in Chicago.

On September 17, 2002, at 2PM NEM members will be meeting with FERC Staff responsible for the Standard Market Design GIGA-NOPR at the FERC headquarters in Washington, DC. A pre-meeting will be held at Union Station beginning at 11AM at the open-air restaurant located near the entrance. A draft agenda for the meeting is hotlinked here. RSVPs for attendance at the meeting were due September 11, 2002.

NEM's Executive Committee will hold an important meeting to review, identify and prioritize issues and vote on NEM's position on the FERC NOPR on Standard Market Design, Next Steps to Develop and Implement Industry Standards for Risk Valuation, Management and Financial Governance as well as review and prioritize NEM's positions on State Retail and Technology-related issues on September 26 & 27, 2002, in Chicago. The final agenda is hotlinked here. The meeting will be open to all NEM members and prospective members. A brochure and quick registration form are hotlinked here for your convenience. A listing of area hotels is also hotlinked here. Please be sure to reserve a hotel room and RSVP so that we can plan to have enough room and meals.

NEM has reserved Union Train Station in downtown Chicago for this meeting. Please let us know if you would like to break out into two or more subject matter groups to focus on Wholesale and Credit/Risk Management issues separately from the Retail/Consumer Aggregation issues during the day of September 26, 2002.

NEM Policy Chairs will lead the discussion on all issues. Your attendance and input on these important issues is encouraged and will be appreciated.

NEM's Winter Executive Committee Meeting will be held in San Diego at Sempra's headquarters on January 16 and 17, 2003. This meeting will be for NEM Executive Committee Members only. As in the past, the Executive Committee will establish the policy positions and priorities for NEM for the coming year. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, West Tower, at a rate of $189 per night. Place your reservations at 619-291-2900 or 888-625-5144. Reservations must be received by December 16, 2002, in order to guarantee the discounted rate.

All Executive Committeee Members are requested to attend. An agenda will be sent out prior to the meeting.

An open meeting of the Department of Energy's Electricity Advisory Board will be held September 20, 2002, from 9AM until 4PM at the Regent Wall Street Hotel in New York. NEM has been invited to participate in the meeting on a panel on corporate governance and practices. The full text of the Preliminary Meeting Agenda is available on the NEM Website.

In addition to consideration of corporate governance issues, the purpose of the meeting is also to review draft reports of EAB Subcommittees. The Subcommittee on Electric Resources Capitalization Concerns has released a draft report on competitive wholesale electric generation. The Subcommittee on Transmission Grid Solutions has also released a draft report. The full texts of the Capitalization Subcommittee Draft Report and Transmission Grid Solutions Draft Report are available on the NEM Website.

FERC has issued a Notice revising the comment schedule on Standard Market Design. Initial comments are now due November 15, 2002. FERC also added an opportunity for reply comments that are due December 20, 2002. FERC confirmed the previously announced market monitoring plan and standardized software technical conferences scheduled for October 2 and 3, 2002, respectively. FERC also scheduled an additional technical conference on liability and indemnification provisions to be held December 11, 2002. Finally, FERC has reserved a week on January 2003 for further technical conferences as may be necessary. The full text of the Notice is available on the NEM Website.

FERC has issued a rulemaking on Critical Energy Infrastructure Information (CEII). FERC proposes to define CEII as: "information about proposed or existing critical infrastructure that (i) relates to the production, generation, transportation, transmission, or distribution of energy, (ii) could be useful to persons in planning an attack on critical infrastructure, (iii) is exempt from mandatory disclosure under FOIA, and (iv) does not simply give the location of the critical infrastructure." The proposed definition of critical infrastructure is "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, that are so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems or assets would have a debilitating impact on the security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters." CEII requesters would give a CEII Coordinator detailed information about themselves and their need for the information that would be used in the determination of whether to release it. Comments are due 30 days after publication of the NOPR in the Federal Register. The full text of the NOPR is available on the NEM Website.

FERC approved PJM's request to make the period during which license plates are effective in PJM and PJM West consistent. As a result, PJM's current rate structure will remain in effect through December 31, 2004. However, the Commission did note PJM's obligation to comply with the results of the Standard Market Design NOPR. The full text of the Order is available on the NEM Website.