Cannot

The Utah Public Service Commission (PSC) on Monday ruled that Questar Gas cannot recover through customer rates the $28 million the utility spent to process natural gas over a four-year period.

Gas from the far North cannot arrive too soon in southern markets, according to testimony offered in a rate case before the National Energy Board by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., which said it faces increasing “supply risk.”

Gas from the far North cannot arrive too soon in southern markets, according to testimony offered in a rate case before the National Energy Board by TransCanada PipeLines Ltd., which said it faces increasing “supply risk.”

Amid concerns that Mirant may be likely to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if cannot extend its near- and intermediate-term debt maturities, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) on Monday lowered the Atlanta-based energy supplier’s ratings to “CC” from “CCC.” Mirant has about $9.7 billion in debt, including lease-related debt.

As FERC last week was delivering bad news to the Northeast-boundIndependence Pipeline and associated SupplyLink and MarketLinkprojects, the Commission staff was delivering a report to CapitolHill that concluded new pipeline capacity may be needed for theregion within the next three to five years. It didn’t specify howmuch capacity though (See related story).

UtiliCorp United wants to buy the rest of Aquila Gas PipelineCorp. it doesn’t already own, but the companies cannot agree on adeal. UtiliCorp currently owns about 82% of Aquila Gas Pipeline’soutstanding common shares.

“Gas Producers cannot justify the expense of implementing[electronic data interchange] on all pipelines because ofinsufficient volumes on any particular pipeline,” the Natural GasSupply Association said last week in opposing FERC’s mandate foracross the board implementation of EDI by June 1, 1999.