Cinergy Corp. CEO James Rogers last Thursday said that Cinergy and Duke Energy are in “a very good position” to obtain approval of their pending merger from FERC without a hearing. He noted that there were “few interventions” in their case at the Commission, compared to the number filed in the Exelon-Public Service Enterprise Group merger case, which cleared FERC without a hearing.

Rogers made his remarks at the Calyon Securities and Energy Merchant Conference in New York, where he appeared alongside Duke CFO David Hauser.

The Duke-Cinergy merger advanced at the state level last week. Kentucky utility regulators signed off on the deal and, separately, a settlement agreement was filed with the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) by Duke and NCUC staff.

Kentucky is the second state to approve the merger following South Carolina. At the state level, the deal also needs to be approved by Indiana and Ohio.

On Thursday, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) used a filing made at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) to make its case that more protections and benefits need to be provided to residential customers before the Cinergy-Duke merger proposal is approved by state regulators.

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