Becoming

Utility stocks have been heating up in recent weeks, and MerrillLynch is jumping on the bandwagon with a proposal to invest up to$1 billion in a new trading vehicle, Utilities HOLDRS (UTH), a”superstock” made up of the stocks of 20 utility companies.

Utility stocks have been heating up in recent weeks, and MerrillLynch is jumping on the bandwagon with a proposal to invest up to$1 billion in a new trading vehicle, Utilities Holdrs (UTH), madeup of the stocks of 20 utility companies.

In what is becoming a bizarre case of concern to future merchantenergy project proponents, California regulators rescued a secondmerchant underground natural gas storage project from the trashheap Thursday by refusing to support a recommendation to deny theproposal and postponing the item for a future meeting. Analternative to the proposed administrative law judge (ALJ) decisionis likely to be developed by one of the members of the CaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission.

In what is becoming a bizarre case of concern to future merchantenergy project proponents, California regulators rescued a secondmerchant underground natural gas storage project from the trashheap last week by refusing to support a recommendation to deny theproposal and postponing the item for a future meeting. Analternative to the proposed administrative law judge (ALJ) decisionis likely to be developed by one of the members of the CaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission.

American Electric Power (AEP) and Central and South West Corp.(CSW) moved one step closer to becoming the largest electricutility last week when FERC approved the $6 billion marriage of thetwo electric powerhouses. It imposed some conditions on the mergerdeal, but the companies said they weren’t anything they couldn’tlive with.

Moving another step closer to becoming a privately-held company,MidAmerican Energy announced yesterday that its shareholdersoverwhelmingly approved the company’s proposed sale to BerkshireHathaway Inc. The company anticipates receiving all requiredapprovals in the first quarter of this year.

Dynegy Inc. told FERC last week it’s becoming alarmed at thegrowing number of varying Y2K contingency plans being filed bypipelines. The Commission should agree to allow one set ofprocedures for the entire industry, Dynegy suggested. Otherwisethere could be a state of panic on New Year’s eve when shippershave to deal with multiple sets of Y2K emergency nominationprocedures.

Dynegy Inc. told FERC this week it’s becoming alarmed at thegrowing number of varying Y2K contingency plans being filed bypipelines. The Commission should agree to allow one set ofprocedures for the entire industry, Dynegy suggested. Otherwisethere could be a state of panic on New Year’s eve when shippershave to deal with multiple sets of Y2K emergency nominationprocedures.

Producers active in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, which is fastbecoming the most prodigious play in the nation, breathed acollective sigh of relief last week when FERC gave WyomingInterstate Co. Inc. (WIC) the go-ahead to construct its MedicineBow connecting lateral that will enable it to tap into thebountiful coal-bed methane (CBM) reserves in the region. Withoutit, producers said they would be forced to shut in production ofCBM gas for the long term.