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Bob Catell, Keyspan Chair will discuss Power Issues.

January 21, 2005 @ 12:00 am EST


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This morning’s speaker was
Keyspan Chairman Bob Catell. Mr. Catell’s presentation addressed the growing
demand for natural gas. The demand for natural gas has been growing at a rate
that makes the supply of the commodity difficult. There are two pipelines under
consideration. Islander East is one of them. Islander East will bring natural
gas into the US through Canada, supplying points in the Northeast and
terminating on Long Island. About two years ago LIMBA made a commitment to
support Islander East. We are still awaiting approval of the facility. The other
pipeline under consideration is known as the Millennium Pipeline. The Millennium
will bring gas supplies in from the Midwest, where there is a surplus of gas.
With the way we are using gas on Long Island, both will be needed.

Bob
took an opportunity to praise the efforts of his field force for what they do in
general, but specifically how they handled the pipeline break in eastern Suffolk
recently. In that case Long Island crews had help in restoring service to
thousands of homes on the North Fork from crews brought in from NYC and
Connecticut. Bob expressed his thanks for their quick response to the
emergency.

Keyspan under Catell’s leadership has been an active part of
the community. Mr. Catell expressed his belief in community service as being the
right thing to do as well as the fact that we all live here, meaning himself,
Keyspan employees and the valued customers.

As Bob spoke about the gas
business he acknowledged his respected competitor in the person of Kevin Rooney.
Kevin is the Executive Director of The Oil Heat Institute. There was a little
banter back and forth, but what showed through was a deep mutual respect, indeed
a freindship, that these two excellent leaders have for each other.

There were several questions about alternative energy, distributed
generation and Internet access through power lines. As a result we went over the
usual time by about 10 minutes.

Mr. Catell, in collaboration with a
professional writer, wrote a book "The CEO and The Monk" I read it myself and
can tell you it is well written and interesting. Paul Townsend raised the
question about the book because he had read it too. It can be purchased on
Amazon and any profits will go the Keyspan Foundation.

This is the first
cosponsored event with Long Island Forum for Technology (LIFT) By any measure it
was successful and we will be cooperating with LIFT in the future.

Meetings like this are successful as a result of having an interesting
speaker, a timely topic, an orderly format, and an interested audience. We had
it all. I thank my associates Bill Miller, Bonnie Cornett, And Elsie Farrell.
And I thank you, the audience for being there, with your questions and your
humor.