Against

Following the Tortoise and the Hare maxim that slow and steadyoften wins the race, the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) hasdecided to approach retail competition at a turtle’s pace. The KCClast week tossed out the idea of installing statewide customerchoice and instead chose to leave open the possibility that MidwestEnergy, one of the state’s many LDCs, can, if it chooses, file anapplication for a small retail pilot program.

A day after a Delaware Judge dismissed one of three NiSourcelawsuits against Columbia Energy Group, NiSource suffered yetanother setback in its battle for a hostile takeover of Columbia.Ohio State Representative David Goodman (R-Bexley), who already haspublicly opposed the merger, has introduced legislation designed toclose a loophole in Ohio law that would allow hostile takeovers ofgas utilities to take place without public review and scrutiny.Goodman was joined as sponsor of the legislation by 77 of the 99members of the Ohio House of Representatives.

As Floyd wreaked havoc up and down the East Coast last week,Hurricane FERC wrought its own brand of torrent on new pipelineconstruction. Shifting its policy more toward a market-based andconsumer-oriented focus, the Commission voted out (4-1) a policystatement eliminating set requirements for supporting contracts andany presumption for rolled-in pricing that would raise the rates ofexisting customers.

Against the backdrop of NiSource Inc.’s hostile takeover bid forColumbia Energy Group, a number of U.S. and foreign electriccompanies were emerging last week as potential third-party suitorsfor the diversified energy concern.

Against the backdrop of NiSource Inc.’s hostile takeover bid forColumbia Energy Group, a number of U.S. and foreign electriccompanies are emerging as potential third-party suitors for thediversified energy concern.

WICOR Inc., parent of Wisconsin Gas, says it intends to”vigorously defend” itself against a shareholder class-actionlawsuit that seeks to put the brakes to the company’s proposedacquisition by Wisconsin Energy Corp.

Northern Natural Gas had a System Underrun Limitation in effectTuesday for all market-area zones to guard against excessivelinepack.

The Chancery Court of Delaware is stepping up the pace on alawsuit filed on June 24 against Columbia Energy Group by NiSource,NiSource said yesterday. The court has called for an acceleratedschedule for the case in which NiSource is seeking to compelColumbia to reopen its 1999 annual meeting so that another directorcan be elected to a vacant seat on Columbia’s board.

NiSource is taking its $68/share offer ($5.6 billion) directlyto Columbia Energy Group shareholders today and said it has filedlitigation against Columbia and its directors in the DelawareChancery Court in an attempt to gain an opportunity to nominate adirector to fill a vacant seat on Columbia’s board. The seat wasvacated in May when one of Columbia’s directors retired, butColumbia failed to call for a shareholder vote on a replacement atits annual meeting last month, NiSource said.