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The Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) has approved an amended gas cost recovery (GCR) plan for Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. (Mich Con), reducing the recoverable amount for 2002 by more than $26 million, and criticizing the company’s policy of decreasing low cost storage reserves to serve customers in 2001 and signing higher fixed priced contracts for 2002.

CMS Energy has sold the government energy services division of CMS Viron to Pepco Energy Services for an undisclosed amount. Pepco was a partner with CMS Viron in numerous federal contracts including the largest federal government energy savings contract ever awarded in 1999 with the Military District of Washington. That contract covered five military bases in the Washington, DC, area.

Dynegy Inc. reported a crushing amount of negative financial news on Friday, including a $341 million loss before dividends for the fourth quarter and a $2.8 billion loss for the year after scrapping its natural gas marketing contract with ChevronTexaco, shutting the doors on energy trading and laying off 1,100 employees, including 700 in the fourth quarter. Dynegy shares, which have been in the basement since last summer, fell 16% on Friday to $2.

Dynegy Inc. reported a crushing amount of negative financial news on Friday, including a $341 million loss before dividends for the fourth quarter and a $2.8 billion loss for the year after scrapping its natural gas marketing contract with ChevronTexaco, shutting the doors on energy trading and laying off 1,100 employees, including 700 in the fourth quarter. Dynegy shares, which have been in the basement since last summer, fell 16% on Friday to $2.

Algonquin will lift Wednesday a Critical Notice that was posted Jan. 20. It anticipates that operating conditions will allow a limited amount of due-shipper imbalance make-up gas to be scheduled.

Anticipated demand allowed Algonquin to accept “a limited amount” of due-shipper imbalance make-up nominations for Christmas Day. However, the pipeline said no due-shipper gas would be available Thursday.

Despite a substantial amount of near-winter weather lingering in the Midwest and Northeast market areas, softer cash prices Wednesday showed conclusively that the early-week rally had run out of steam. A few scattered points were flat to barely lower, but otherwise losses ranged up to about 30 cents at the PG&E citygate. Most decreases were around a dime or less, however.

Concerns about the amount of cash that Dynegy Inc. and its subsidiaries will be able to generate, and the continuing worries about the energy merchant’s ability to refinance debt obligations not due until next year, led Moody’s Investors Service to downgrade the Houston-based company’s credit ratings on Thursday. Those included in the latest cuts were parent corporation Dynegy Inc., Dynegy Holdings Inc., its primary operating subsidiary, and that of Illinois Power, its largest utility.

Over a one-month period last summer, Chuck Watson, the former chairman and CEO of Dynegy, apparently sold off a substantial amount of shares he was holding in the fallen energy merchant. According to a series of filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), more than 5 million shares of Watson’s Dynegy stock were sold between June and July.