Energy Insight News for Thursday, June 21, 2001
Is ANWR DOA?

President George W. Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto protocol process
sparked a response that he clearly did not expect, both at home and abroad.
Indeed, this and other recent events suggest the American public is
significantly more engaged in environmental issues than the administration
believed.

Despite attempts to repair this image with photo ops in the Everglades and
elsewhere-moves that played in the mainstream press as hopelessly
contrived-the president's strategy has eroded support among environmentally
conscious moderates and threatens development initiatives that require this
trust.

A recent Washington Post-ABC News Poll concluded that a full 58% of the
public disapproves of how President Bush is handling the energy situation,
an increase of 15% since a survey conducted four weeks ago. Further, half of
the public disapproves of his actions on environmental issues, up 9% since
April, while 41% approve.

Given this, there is growing speculation that the fight to open the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) may be over-before it even began-especially
now that the Democrats have Senate control.
"We already think we have the votes in the Senate, even by simple majority
[without a filibuster] to defeat any bill that includes arctic drilling,"
said Melinda Pierce, spokesperson for the Sierra Club.

This begs the question: Why is the Bush administration showing such tenacity
on this issue?

"While President Bush may be fulfilling campaign promises, there is also the
idea circulating that this is a stalking horse," speculates Pierce.
President Bush may be pushing ANWR, despite continued setbacks, in order to
eventually "give in." This could give him a legislative bargaining chip to
get access to other restricted areas in, for example, the Rocky Mountains.
Read the entire story at http://www.energyinsight.com.
Also, catch the latest news headlines on Energy Insight Executive, updated
twice daily.
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Market Brief    Wednesday, June 20
Stocks  Close   Change  % Change
DJIA    10,647.33       50.7    0.48%
DJ 15 Util.     363.85  (2.4)   -0.66%
NASDAQ  2,031.17        38.51   1.93%
S&P 500 1,223.14        10.6    0.87%

Market Vols     Close   Change  % Change
AMEX (000)      132,262 11,859.0        9.85%
NASDAQ (000)    2,093,884       110,249.0       5.56%
NYSE (000)      1,341,599       163,470.0       13.88%

Commodities     Close   Change  % Change
Crude Oil (Jul) 26.5    (0.98)  -3.57%
Heating Oil (Jul)       0.7415  (0.033) -4.25%
Nat. Gas (Henry)        3.725   (0.335) -8.25%
Palo Verde (Jul)        120.00  0.00    0.00%
COB (Jul)       115.00  0.00    0.00%
PJM (Jul)       61.00   (6.75)  -9.96%

Dollar US $     Close   Change  % Change
Australia $     1.929   0.007   0.36%
Canada $        1.534   0.000   0.00%
Germany Dmark   2.288   (0.002) -0.09%
Euro    0.8536  (0.000) -0.04%
Japan ?en     123.80  0.700   0.57%
Mexico NP       9.07    0.000   0.00%
UK Pound        0.7145  (0.0007)        -0.10%

Foreign Indices Close   Change  % Change
Arg MerVal      419.55  1.47    0.35%
Austr All Ord.  3,348.40        25.70   0.77%
Braz Bovespa    14571.24        170.51  1.18%
Can TSE 300     7675.7  (27.17) -0.35%
Germany DAX     5876.04 (46.49) -0.78%
HK HangSeng     12918.71        (214.95)        -1.64%
Japan Nikkei 225        12674.64        100.38  0.80%
Mexico IPC      6455.15 96.09   1.51%
UK FTSE 100     5,699.60        19.20   0.34%

Source:  Yahoo! & TradingDay.com
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Executive News
Shell to invest up to $1 billion in wind, solar by 2006
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies announced last week it would invest
between $500 million and $1 billion over the next five years in "a range of
new energy businesses, concentrating primarily on solar and wind energy."
Shell expects its solar business to grow at the same rate as the market,
which is now growing at 25% per year. Shell is also participating in two
trial wind projects, totaling 8 MW in capacity, and is evaluating new wind
energy projects in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Morocco and the
United States that total 400 MW in capacity.

Calif. power refund talks may expand to other states
Reuters reports that Federal Energy Regulatory Chairman (FERC) Chairman
Curtis Hebert said on Wednesday the agency-led talks to settle alleged
California power overcharges by generators may be open to companies and
other interested parties from other Western states. "I can say that Western
(companies) outside of California are not shut out of the discussion,"
Hebert said during testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs
committee. Hebert mentioned by name several other parties that could take
part, including Puget Sound Energy, the City of Seattle and Bonneville Power
Administration. In Monday's FERC order to expand its "price mitigation" plan
throughout all 11 Western states, the agency also ordered an administrative
law judge to launch discussions on June 25 between California utilities and
their power suppliers to try and settle refund questions. If the parties
cannot reach a deal by early July, Hebert said FERC would step in and settle
the matter.

To subscribe to our real time Executive News Service, which is updated twice
daily, log on to http://www.energyinsight.com, or contact FT Energy's Direct
Response Team at 1-800-424-2908 (if outside the United States call
1-720-548-5700).
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Announcements

Attention RDI clients: Speaker presentations from the RDI Conference are now
available on RDI Online at www.rdionline.com. Clients can go to any of the
product tabs for the products they subscribe to and click on the word
Presentations to access them. Also available are the user guides from the
advanced product trainings presented at the conference.

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Leukemia Cup Regatta raising money for a cure
A collection of major convergence energy industry participants joined
together under the name ENERGY2CURE (E2C) to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society's annual Volvo Leukemia Cup sailing regatta, taking place the
weekend of June 23 in Houston, Texas. E2C is a Houston-based not for profit
syndicate that was put together by individuals, who are directly related to
the converging electricity and natural gas industries, that wished to
combine a passion for sailing with the much greater need to find a cure for
leukemia and lymphoma. Under the corporate-neutral syndicate flag of E2C;
Aquila, Cinergy, Credit Lyonnais Americas, Duke Energy, El Paso Corp.,
Keyspan, Mirant, SEMCO Energy, Southern Cos., Toronto-Dominion Bank,
UtiliCorp United, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Financial Times
Energy and the Williams Cos., as well as their respective employees,
discarded their highly competitive daily mantras in order to band together
under one umbrella of corporate compassion and hope. The $81,000 raised by
E2C year-to-date in 2001 exceeds the national record of funds raised by one
boat of $64,896 that E2C established in June 2000. ENERGY2CURE's ambitious
2001 goal to raise $125,000 and to include at least 10 new industry
participants is fueled by the fact that leukemia is a national challenge
that continues to be the number one child killing disease in North America.
For more information about ENERGY2CURE or the fight against leukemia and
lymphoma, please visit the E2C web site at www.energy2cure.org.