Southwest Gas of Las Vegas and Oneok Inc. of Tulsa, OK receivedthe blessing of Nevada’s Consumer Advocate and a Nevada statelegislator for their proposed merger.

Fred Schmidt, the State Consumer Advocate in the Nevada AttorneyGeneral’s Office, said his office performed a preliminaryevaluation of a competing offer for Southwest Gas by SouthernUnion, and concluded that, “we did not think that they had thefinancial capability to pull off the offer that they put forwardwithout substantially jeopardizing the current rate levels thatcustomers pay in Nevada.”

Comments favoring the merger came during one of two consumersessions conducted by the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada May26 and 27. The sessions are part of the Commission approval processof the Southwest Gas-Oneok combination. Evidentiary hearings on thecase are scheduled to start June 21.

State Senator Randolph Townsend (R-Washoe), chair of the StateSenate Committee on Commerce and Labor, which oversees all utilitymatters and the Public Utilities Commission, also addressed thehearing. “This merger will provide significant benefits toconsumers as well as shareholders.”

Southern Union gained permission early last month to join anexisting lawsuit against Southwest Gas in a last-ditch attempt toovertake Oneok as the winner in the race to merge with Southwest.The lawsuit accuses Southwest Gas’ board of directors of refusingto negotiate with Southern Union in good faith. None of the partiesinvolved would comment further on the situation as of press time.

The original lawsuit was filed by Southwest shareholders in SanDiego County’s Superior Court. Southern Union said the originallawsuit accuses the Southwest board of seeking only to protectitself during the past merger negotiations.

Southern Union is asking the court for permission to directlysolicit Southwest’s shareholders to oppose the Southwest-Oneokagreement and to support Southern Union’s efforts to merge.

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