Mike and Jeff:  

Yesterday, Harry Kingerski from Government Affairs testified before the Georgia state commission, advocating the use and benefits of weather derivatives.  Harry heads up our rates/technical division within Government Affairs - he has excellent technical skills and is very highly regarded by state commissioners nationwide.  I wanted to report back to you that Harry received very positive feedback from various groups attending the hearing.  He commented to me this morning that the Commissioners were very attentive when he discussed weather products, and basically snoozed through the remainder of the hearing!!  He has recommended to Mark's group that we talk directly to the Commissioners (outside of the litigation process) to further educate them on our products.     

We are also advocating weather products in other state proceedings, as opportunities arise.  All of this work is being done internally within Government Affairs, drawing upon various areas of expertise.   

We will keep plugging away, but wanted you to know that, so far, we are getting good feedback!!  

Lisa

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Kingerski, Harry  
Sent:	Thursday, October 25, 2001 10:10 AM
To:	Piekielniak, Elsa; Windle, Bill; Tawney, Mark; Natarajan, Meera; Arefieva, Maria
Cc:	Frank, Robert; Yoho, Lisa
Subject:	Georgia Power Rate Case

Yesterday, we were cross-examined on our testimony at hearings before the Georgia Public Service Commission.  One of the main points in our testimony was that Georgia Power should be required to use weather hedges to mitigate weather-related volume risk.  We made the point that hedges would be superior to the revenue sharing approach proposed by Georgia Power, and could save customers significant amounts of money.

Although a final PSC decision isn't scheduled until early in December, there were a couple of positive signs at the hearing.  Several othere intervenors, including Commission staff, talked to us informally about the idea and seemed to see benefit in the weather hedging approach.  Also, the 4 commissioners seemed particularly attentive when we described the weather issue during the hearing (a noticeable difference, compared to their attention on most issues).

We may have opportunity to visit informally with the commissioners later in November.  If we can arrange it, would one of you be interested in giving a brief overview of the weather market and the participants (the on-the-shelf presentation you have would be fine)?   This could help with their final decision.

On a different front, we are planning an intervention in a Gulf Power rate case in Florida to promote weather hedging.  Bob and I think the issues there are similar.  Our due date for testimony there is early in December. 

Thanks to each of you for helping us prepare the materials for these cases.