Press Releases

Group 8760 Vice President Jim Buccigross Briefs House Commerce Committee Staff on Gas Industry Standards Board

Tuesday, June 13, 2000 • Washington, D.C.

Jim Buccigross, vice president, energy industry practice, for Group 8760 and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB), briefed the staff of the House Committee on Commerce last week regarding the role and history of GISB, the GISB standards, and the standards’ potential applicability to the electric industry.

“At the invitation of the committee staff, I provided an overview of the GISB standards process and GISB’s governance; described GISB’s relationship with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which has incorporated most of GISB’s standards into its regulations; and described GISB’s current efforts to determine if there is energy industry support for an organization to develop retail gas and electricity standards, Buccigross said.

“I very much appreciated the opportunity to discuss GISB’s accomplishments with the staff of an important committee of Congress,” Buccigross continued. “The invitation demonstrates the recognition that GISB’s key role in the energy industry is achieving. I learned a great deal from the briefing, and based on the questions they asked, I trust the Commerce Committee staff members did as well.

“I was very pleased that Jim Buccigross was available and willing to provide the briefing,” said GISB Executive Director Rae McQuade. “Besides being our current Executive Committee chair, Jim has chaired and contributed to a number of GISB subcommittees and task forces. He knows the history and accomplishments of GISB as well as anyone.

Group 8760 LLC, based in Birmingham, Ala., recently announced that its GISB-certified GISBAgent® communications software now supports the delivery of XML documents over the Internet. Group 8760 is the leading provider of Internet electronic data interchange (Internet EDI) solutions for Pennsylvania’s deregulated utility market

Additional information on Group 8760 is available on the Internet at http://www.8760.com or by contacting Helen Markland or Jim Mark at (205) 250-8053.

GISB was established in September 1994 as an independent and voluntary North American organization to develop and promote the use of business practices and related electronic communications standards designed to promote more competitive, efficient and reliable gas service. The organization has over 150 corporate members, a board of directors, an executive committee, an advisory committee and many other working committees and task forces.