Barbara and I had the opportunity to meet with FERC Commissioner Brownell, who was in Columbus today to speak at the Ohio Energy Summit.

Her presentation stressed the sea change at FERC and called for aggressive cooperation of all stakeholders to develop a common market design and interconnection procedures for all RTOs.  Barbara and I were able to meet her after her presentation for a half hour or so, during which time she stated that the common tariff she anticipated coming out of the RTO related discussions at FERC would likely prompt many lawsuits filed by the incumbent utilities.  She urged, of course, that Enron be represented during the FERC RTO Week discussions, which will be sharply focused on technical market structure issues rather than governance.

We had the opportunity to discuss several Ohio-specific concerns, including the current complaints before the Ohio Commission regarding the incumbents' disregard of their agreements to serve all load under the same terms and conditions of the OATT.  She took note of our points regarding the impact of differential imbalance protocols and OASIS information posting, and suggested the upcoming RTO discussions would present the opportunity to discuss those and other issues generically.  She also commended Ohio Chariman Schriber for the interest he has expressed to her and to the Ohio congressional delegation in resolving wholesale electricity market issues.  It was announced at the Summit by Governor Taft that Schriber will head a Federal Energy Policy Group to promote the establishment of  wholesale markets that support a robust retail choice program for Ohio.  Details on the formation of the group are not yet public, but we are taking steps to assure that we are represented in the Group.