Approved

The New York State Public Service Commission has approved thesale of all electricity generating facilities owned by Orange andRockland Utilities, including a facility owned jointly withConsolidated Edison of New York, to affiliates of Southern Energy,Inc. for $476.3 million. All net proceeds from the sale will beused for the benefit of O&R and Con Edison ratepayers.

Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) has asked FERC to extend the waivers andlimited jurisdiction blanket certificate that were approved a yearago on a limited basis to help carry out the utility’s retail gasunbundling program in Georgia.

Oneok’s proposed merger with Southwest Gas received a big shotin the arm yesterday, as the Nevada Public Utilities Commission(PUCN) unanimously approved the deal two months ahead of schedule.Although approval is still needed from Arizona and Californiaregulators as well as Southwest Gas shareholders, both companiesare confident the merger will be completed in the previouslyannounced fourth quarter 1999 timeframe.

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill including $500 million inloan guarantees for independent oil and gas producers and thepetroleum service industry. The loan guarantee program is part ofH.R. 1664, which is now on its way to a House/Senate conferencecommittee. The product of that committee will then be sent back toboth houses for ratification. The bill drew praise from theIndependent Petroleum Assoc. which called it a “tool that America’soil and gas producers will be able to use to help them recover fromthe recent devastating period of low oil prices.” The groupcredited Sen. Pete Dominici, R-NM for leading the initiative. Underthe program 85% of the loans of up to $10 million will be coveredby a government-backed repayment guarantee. The bill alsoestablishes a $1 billion loan program for the steel industry.

The U.S. Senate has approved a bill including $500 million inloan guarantees for independent oil and gas producers and thepetroleum service industry. The loan guarantee program is part ofH.R. 1664, which is now on its way to a House/Senate conferencecommittee. The product of that committee will then be sent back toboth houses for ratification. The bill drew praise from theIndependent Petroleum Assoc. which called it a “tool that America’soil and gas producers will be able to use to help them recover fromthe recent devastating period of low oil prices.” The groupcredited Sen. Pete Dominici, R-NM for leading the initiative. Underthe program 85% of the loans of up to $10 million will be coveredby a government-backed repayment guarantee. The bill alsoestablishes a $1 billion loan program for the steel industry.

FERC yesterday gave its endorsement to a transmission rateschedule proposed by Reliant Energy Gas Transmission that willenable the company to meet the hourly peaking needs of powergenerators. With this action, Reliant becomes the first gaspipeline capable of providing such service.

Shareholders of St. Joseph Light & Power Co. of Missouriapproved a merger with UtiliCorp United Inc. of Kansas City. Of theshares voted, 93.6% were in favor of the merger, while only 2.1%voted against. The approval vote represents 68.5% of all St. Josephshares outstanding. St. Joseph Light & Power share owners willreceive $23 of UtiliCorp common stock for each share of theircommon stock at the deal’s completion. St. Joseph’s stock closed at$20.6875 and UtiliCorp’s stock closed at $24.8125 Tuesday. The$190.6 million deal to create Missouri’s fourth largest gasdistributor and third largest electricity distributor was announcedin early March (See Daily GPI March 8, 1999). The companies nowseek regulatory approval, including the completion of a marketpower study required by both the Missouri Public Service Commissionand FERC, which should be finished in about 60 days. Steinbeckersaid. Light & Power serves 66,000 electric and gas customers inall or part of 10 northwest Missouri counties. UtiliCorp has morethan three million customers in eight states and in Canada,Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The shareholders of Santa Fe Energy Resources and Snyder OilCorp. approved the merger of the two companies during specialmeetings yesterday. More than 99% of the voting shareholders ofeach company voted in favor of the merger. The new Houston-basedcombined company, which will be called Santa Fe Snyder Corp., willhave a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, with reserves of 315million boe. Combined production for 1999 is expected to be 105,000boe/d, 55% of which will be gas and 70% of which will be producedin the U.S.

BGE shareholders approved the formation of holding companyConstellation Energy Group Inc. Constellation Energy is now set tobe launched May 3, trading under the CEG ticker symbol on the NewYork Stock Exchange. Constellation Energy will be the parentcompany that holds BGE’s common stock and the common stock of allof BGE’s current subsidiaries. BGE will become a sibling to itscurrent subsidiaries and will remain regulated by the MarylandPublic Service Commission.