Three-and-a-half years after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Calpine Corp. made its final financial distribution spelled out in its court-approved plan for emerging from bankruptcy protection in late January 2008. Calpine released approximately 19.8 million shares of its common stock from reserves that previously had been set aside to satisfy bankruptcy claims that were still unresolved when the independent (mostly natural gas-fired) power plant operator/developer left Chapter 11 protection. Calpine senior officials hailed the milestone as putting the company’s debt-laden past to bed. The reserve shares were already counted among the 486 million weighted average shares outstanding listed by the company as of June 30, so there is no impact on earnings or cash flow from the final release of shares. Noting all the “technical matters” from the past are behind Calpine, CFO Zamir Rauf said the company now has “fully resolved all claims associated with our bankruptcy.”

Nearly a third of a billion dollars of federal stimulus funds have passed through the California Energy Commission (CEC), the state power plant siting panel said. The CEC has administered the disbursement of $314.5 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs supported by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). An estimated 408 new jobs were created through the funding, according to the CEC, applying the jobs estimating formula used by the federal Office of Management and Budget. The bulk of the funds and the jobs involved programs under the California state energy program ($226 million for nearly 338 jobs), the CEC said. ARRA funds also were allocated to energy efficiency/conservation programs ($49.6 million), appliance rebate programs ($35.2 million), and energy assurance planning ($3.6 million). Most recently, the CEC announced awarding $587,914 in research project grants for promoting clean energy technologies and developing an energy audit tool for wastewater treatment plants. Those monies went to several campuses in University of California and California State University and College systems.

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