Energy Insight News for Tuesday, January 8, 2002
Tabled, canceled project numbers climbing

The flow of tabled and canceled power plant projects, at first a meandering
stream, has become almost a raging torrent-and some industry watchers
predict Niagara Falls-like volumes of deals soon will come to a screeching
halt.

While new project announcements feature smiles, handshakes and big promises
of jobs and new taxes, tabled and canceled announcements barely cause a
ripple as they are yanked from the development table. 

And, those projects being pulled continue to grow. According to data culled
from the Platts NEWGen database, at year-end 2001, 91,139 MW of capacity had
been tabled or canceled throughout North America-84,976 MW in the United
States alone. 

Both the North American and U.S. numbers represent 18.1% of the proposed
megawatts on the books at year-end, according to NEWGen data. For the
continent, a total of 503,780 MW were proposed, while in the states, 470,014
MW were proposed in 2001. 

To give a sense of what a difference a year makes, the megawatts tabled and
canceled throughout North America from December 2000 through December 2001,
jumped a whopping 194.9%, with 60,230 additional megawatts of capacity
getting the hook. 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    Monday, January 7               	
Stocks  Close   Change  % Change	
DJIA    10,197.05       (62.7)  -0.61%	
DJ 15 Util.     296.27  2.1     0.71%	
NASDAQ  2,037.11        (22.27) -1.08%	
S&P 500 1,164.89        (7.6)   -0.65%	
                        	
Market Vols     Close   Change  % Change	
AMEX (000)      141,033 (25,803.0)      -15.47%	
NASDAQ (000)    2,111,444       (92,331.0)      -4.19%	
NYSE (000)      1,305,237       (207,832.0)     -13.74%	
                        	
Commodities     Close   Change  % Change	
Crude Oil (Feb) 21.42   0.02    0.09%	
Heating Oil (Feb)       0.5705  (0.015) -2.63%	
Nat. Gas (Henry)        2.27    (0.005) -0.22%	
Propane (Feb)   30.25   (0.65)  -2.10%	
Palo Verde (Feb)        24.75   0.00    0.00%	
COB (Feb)       24.75   0.00    0.00%	
PJM (Feb)       27.55   0.00    0.00%	
                        	
Dollar US $     Close   Change  % Change	
Australia $     1.928   0.008   0.42%	
Canada $        1.60    0.001   0.06%	
Germany Dmark   2.19    0.005   0.23%	
Euro    0.8934  (0.002) -0.22%	
Japan ?en     131.0   0.100   0.08%	
Mexico NP       9.15    (0.020) -0.22%	
UK Pound        0.6951  0.0034  0.49%	
                        	
Foreign Indices Close   Change  % Change	
Arg MerVal      343.22  0.00    0.00%	
Austr All Ord.  3,385.30        11.00   0.33%	
Braz Bovespa    14378.59        46.67   0.33%	
Can TSE 300     7870.30 37.06   0.47%	
Germany DAX     5232.22 (86.51) -1.63%	
HK HangSeng     11892.64        190.49  1.63%	
Japan Nikkei 225        10942.36        70.87   0.65%	
Mexico IPC      6565.44 (46.64) -0.71%	
UK FTSE 100     5,293.60        (30.20) -0.57%	
                        	
Source:  Yahoo!, TradingDay.com and NYMEX.com                   	
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Executive News
NRC recommends licensing private spent fuel storage facility
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has recommended issuing a license
to Private Fuel Storage LLC (PFS) to construct a spent fuel facility on part
of the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians reservation in Utah. The staff
found the facility provides more benefits than disadvantages. NRC is the
lead agency in licensing process, although three other federal agencies--the
U.S. Department of Interior's (DOI) Bureau of Land Management, DOI's Bureau
of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Surface Transportation Board--also must review
and approve parts of the proposal. A censored version of NRC's final
environmental impact statement on PFS' application to construct a spent fuel
storage facility in Utah was released yesterday on the agency's web site,
www.nrc.gov. Sensitive information considered "helpful to a potential
terrorist" was blotted out. The staff has estimated that, assuming the
license is approved, the earliest spent fuel could be received at the site
is mid-2004.

MidAmerican Energy selects site for 900-MW coal-fired plant
MidAmerican Energy Co. Monday identified Council Bluffs, Iowa as the
preferred site for construction of a 900-MW, coal-fueled electric generating
plant. The new plant, first announced by MidAmerican last July is expected
to cost $1.4 billion. The new plant will be developed on the current site of
the company's Council Bluffs Energy Center (CBEC), located four miles south
of Council Bluffs along Interstate 29. Although still in the design stage,
the unit is scheduled to come on-line in the spring of 2007.  The plant will
be operated by MidAmerican but jointly owned, with the generated electricity
shared by MidAmerican and other utilities. The company said the Council
Bluffs site came out on top due to its reliable water supply and an
efficient rail transportation system to deliver the low-sulfur Western coal
that will serve as the fuel.

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