Subject: Ohio Gas Legislation
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 05:51:00 -0800 (PST)

A bill introduced in Ohio would have required Enron to become certified and 
pay the OCC and PUCO assessments.  Other provisions called for allowing the 
LDC to tack on a surcharge to recover from all customers the additional costs 
incurred as a result of a defaulting supplier.  Further provisions allow for 
a municipal aggregation pilot with the authority granted to the PUCO to allow 
the program to be expanded to all municipalities at the end of three years.  
At that point, the utilities could seek stranded costs, however it is 
questionable how much they would actually have.

Fortunately, we were able to get an amendment that limited the applicability 
of all these regulations and costs (assessments, surcharges and stranded 
costs) to just the "choice" customers.  Choice customers are primarily 
residential customers operating under the PUCO approved programs established 
in the Columbia, East Ohio and Cinergy service territories.  The threshold 
for regulation, etc is to exempt a mercantile customer who is defined as " a 
customer that consumes, other than for residential use, more than five 
hundred thousand cubic feet of natural gas per year at a single location 
within this state or is part of an undertaking having more than three 
locations within or outside this state."  This should cover most, if not all 
our customers.

The status of the bill is that it has passed committee and the Speaker is 
going to pass it out of the House without amendment.  We are hearing that the 
Senate will accept no amendments either, however, that remains to be seen.  
Barbara and I are monitoring this closely and will keep you posted. 

Janine