Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Tuesday that for now its downgrade of PG&E Corp’s merchant energy unit, the National Energy Group (NEG), will not impact the rating of Selkirk Cogen Funding Corp., of which NEG is a part owner, even if the PG&E unit is forced to seek bankruptcy. No announcements were scheduled on NEG’s efforts to improve its balance sheet.

S&P’s in a terse announcement said the risk of consolidation in the event of an NEG bankruptcy is “low because the project is structured as a bankruptcy-remote, special-purpose entity, and NEG shares ownership of the project with Cogentrix Energy Inc., a privately held, Charlotte, NC-based independent power producer; Aquila Inc.; and the McNair Group (formerly Cogen Technologies Ltd.).”

On larger issues impacting the financing and credit rating of NEG overall, PG&E spokespeople in San Francisco and Portland, OR, said Tuesday in response to questions for Power Market Today that no announcements on the company’s ongoing financial assessment were expected immediately on what asset sales, debt restructuring or operational reorganization the merchant energy unit will pursue.

NEG’s Pacific Northwest Gas Transmission Pipeline unit last week pulled back its planned pipeline expansion next year, but that was because of insufficient market interest–not the current fiscal crisis, a spokesperson said. By the end of this month or later in the fall, the interstate gas pipeline expects to complete its two ongoing expansions — one in Oregon on its existing pipeline from the Alberta, Canada-U.S. border to California, and the other, the partnership with San Diego-based Sempra Energy in the U.S. portion of the North Baja Pipeline that began service last month. Both projects involve additional compressor station construction and enhancement.

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