H. Ross Perot, the founder of Plano, TX-based Perot System Corp., will testify July 11 before the California state senate’s investigative committee looking at alleged energy market manipulation in the state’s 2000-2001 electricity crisis. Perot’s appearance is voluntary, but a state legislative committee staff member said there still may be subpoenas eventually directed at Perot and his firm. The center of the controversy is a PowerPoint presentation on “holes” in the state’s newly restructured electricity market that Perot Systems help set up in 1997-98 from an information systems perspective under contract to two state entities — the transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, and the now bankrupt California Power Exchange (Cal-PX). As part of subpoenaed information from Houston-based Reliant Energy, a copy of the Perot Systems’ presentation came into the hands of investigators with the state senate Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation of the Wholesale Energy Market.

Senate and House conferees have chosen House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) to head the conference committee that is charged with the task of reconciling the markedly different omnibus energy bills which have emerged from the two sides of the Capitol. Negotiators had been at odds over whether a Senate or House lawmaker should chair the conference committee. The selection of Tauzin now clears the way for the conferees, who number more than 60, to begin shaping the final energy package. The first session of the conference committee is scheduled for Thursday (June 27). Faced with more than 1,500 pages of energy legislation, negotiators expect the conference process to “last the entire summer and well into the fall,” said a spokesman for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. But they appear “pretty optimistic they will have an energy bill over to President Bush” by the end of the year, he told NGI. If Congress fails to pass an energy bill by year-end, it will have to start the process over again in 2003. Three key issues confronting negotiators will be the House bill provision on drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the electricity title in the Senate measure, and the multi-billion-dollar tax packages in both bills.

Moving another giant step toward merger completion, Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco) and Conectiv last week said that the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) voted to approve the merger of the two companies. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s approval is the final remaining hurdle. The New Jersey approval came after an administrative law judge recommended approval of a merger settlement agreement to the BPU in early June. The settlement was signed by other key parties, including the staff of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the New Jersey Ratepayer Advocate’s office, Independent Energy Producers of New Jersey, New Power Co, and both utilities. Pepco expects to close the deal in the third quarter. The merger, announced in February of last year, calls for Pepco to acquire Conectiv for a combination of cash and stock valued at $2.2 billion. The new company will also assume $2.8 billion of Conectiv’s outstanding debt for a total transaction value of almost $5 billion. In the merger announcement, the companies stated that the merger would be immediately accretive to earnings and earnings growth was projected in the 6% to 8% range.

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