You regulatory folks may have already seen this. . . .

Posted at 12:27 p.m. PDT Monday, Aug. 6, 2001 
FERC chairman to resign
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Curtis Hebert, a target of congressional Democrats and California's governor over his handling of the Western power crisis, is resigning at the end of the month as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 
White House spokeswoman Ann Womack said Monday that Hebert submitted his resignation in a letter to President Bush delivered to the White House on Friday. The resignation takes effect Aug. 31. 
The resignation had been expected amid indications for months from the White House that the president wanted Patrick Wood III, a state regulator from Texas, to head the federal agency that oversees wholesale electricity markets and interstate natural gas transportation. 
``The president appreciates Curtis Hebert's service as chairman of the FERC. He has worked hard to balance the need for just and reasonable rates with the need to encourage adequate new supplies of energy,'' Womack said. 
Bush is expected to appoint Wood, an old associate from when Bush was Texas governor, as the commission's new chairman. Bush nominated Wood, who had been chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission since 1995, to the FERC earlier this year. The Senate confirmed him May 25. 
Hebert, a Republican from Mississippi and close friend of Senate Republican leader Trent Lott, was named FERC chairman by Bush in January. At the time, Hebert was the only Republican on the five-member commission because of two vacancies. 
Although Hebert was said to have considered the appointment as a permanent one, word quickly emerged from the administration that the president wanted Wood, with whom he had worked in Texas, to head the agency that has been at the center of the California electricity controversy. 
Hebert, a strong free-market advocate, has defended electricity deregulation and vigorously opposed FERC's imposing price controls in California even as his critics said the Western electricity markets were out of control and not working. 
He frequently clashed with one of the commission's Democratic members, William Massey, over FERC's role in assuring that just and reasonable prices are charged by Western power marketers. Massey wanted some additional price restrictions. 
California Gov. Gray Davis and the state's two senators -- Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer -- have blamed Hebert for FERC's failure to move aggressively in curtailing power prices in the West and its refusal to demand tens of billions of dollars in refunds of high prices charged California for power. 
Hebert argued that price controls will add to the power supply problem in California by stifling power plant construction. He also insisted that FERC has been aggressive in seeking refunds when evidence of price gouging has been found. 
In June, after Wood and another Bush nominee, Nora Brownell of Pennsylvania, joined the commission, FERC issued price caps on electricity in California and other Western states. 
Since then, electricity prices have eased in the California market. While the lower prices have been largely attributed to a combination of mild weather and a push for conservation, the FERC-imposed price restrictions also are widely believed to have played a role. 
Send us feedback <http://www.bayarea.com/c/rc/support/email.htm> | Discuss this story <http://forums.bayarea.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX?13@175.1pfXaJCTaP5%5E1@.ee6b61f> | When we update </c/breaking/update_info.html>