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After years of debate and hearings on whether and how torestructure the $200 billion electricity industry, mark-up ofcomprehensive legislation by the House Energy and PowerSubcommittee finally is in sight but the chances are slim that atruly bipartisan measure will be voted out in the weeks ahead.

The proposed $15 billion merger of energy giants El Paso EnergyCorp. and Sonat Inc. got a regulatory go-ahead yesterday from FERC,clearing the way for the transaction to close by early October.

NiSource suffered two significant setbacks last week in itsbattle for a $5.7 billion hostile takeover of Columbia EnergyGroup, but the company vowed to continue its pursuit of Columbia.

Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. said last week it has receivedmore than $2.2 billion in orders for power generation equipment andservices in the U.S. during the first three quarters of its fiscalyear, which began on Oct. 1, 1998. Orders have been received fromboth merchant plants and rate-based power producers from nearlyevery geographic region in the country and the orders have beenrelatively evenly dispersed throughout the country, a spokesmansaid.

Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp. said yesterday it has receivedmore than $2.2 billion in orders for power generation equipment andservices in the U.S. during the first three quarters of its fiscalyear, which began on Oct. 1, 1998. Orders have been received fromboth merchant plants and rate-based power producers from nearlyevery geographic region in the country and the orders have beenrelatively evenly dispersed throughout the country, a spokesmansaid.

Although the E&P software and services business is abillion-dollar-a-year industry, more than half of the world’sgeoscientists are not using currently available computer technologyto evaluate prospects, according to Bob Stevenson, president ofE&P software provider Geographix, a Houston-based subsidiary ofLandmark Graphics.

Boston-based BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System completedtheir merger into $4.5 billion NSTAR last Wednesday – one day afterwinning approval for the transaction from the Securities andExchange Commission.

Boston-based BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System completedtheir merger into $4.5 billion NSTAR Wednesday – one day afterwinning approval for the transaction from the Securities andExchange Commission.

It’s been a year since the completion of its C$11 billion mergerwith Nova Corp., but TransCanada Pipelines finally came through onpromised savings yesterday. The pipeline company said it will give$70 million in merger-related savings to its pipeline customersthrough “targeted operating cost reductions.” An agreement on thereductions was filed with Canada’s National Energy Board and theAlberta Energy and Utilities Board yesterday.