Changes

PacifiCorp Power Marketing Inc., ScottishPower’s competitive U.S. energy business, said Thursday that it will officially change its name to PPM Energy Inc. on Jan. 15. The news comes one day after the Portland, OR-based company completed the acquisition of Aquila Inc.’s Katy gas storage facility, two development opportunities and two other storage facilities.

Incentives and profits for speculative trading are out, and traditional hedging and marketing centered on assets are in, according to the head of theWestern Power Trading Forum.

With more and more natural gas-fired plants going into operation around the country, pipelines must master a balancing act of serving traditional local distribution companies (LDC), while catering to the new power plant on the block.

While it sees the acquisition of Empire State Pipeline by National Fuel Gas as providing additional stable, predictable cash flow streams and synergies with NFG’s other businesses,Moody’s Investors Service is nevertheless concerned about the debt NFG is taking on.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. said it has started discussions with its customers regarding possible changes in depreciation or ownership of a 20% portion of its mainline stretching from Winnipeg, MB, east to points north of Toronto. One extreme option would be to shut down that part of the system entirely, but the company said that would not occur for many years and would only happen after all else failed.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. said it has started discussions with its customers regarding possible changes in depreciation or ownership of a 20% portion of its mainline stretching from Winnipeg, MB, east to points north of Toronto. One extreme option would be to shut down that part of the system entirely, but the company said that would not occur for many years and would only happen after all else failed.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. said it has started discussions with its customers regarding possible changes in depreciation or ownership of a 20% portion of its mainline stretching from Winnipeg, MB, east to points north of Toronto. One extreme option would be to shut down that part of the system entirely, but the company said that would not occur for many years and would only happen after all else failed.

As an outgrowth of merchant power generation’s shrinking margins and spark spreads, Moody’s Investors Service last Wednesday changed the rating outlook from stable to negative on debt securities of PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group (NEG). The move reflects “the growing reliance on less predictable cash flows coupled with the weak marketplace for merchant generation,” Moody’s said in announcing the change.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) last Monday took dead aim at press reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to roll out plans that will call for a shift away from using the stick of lawsuits to enforce clean air regulations in favor of a carrot-like approach that will urge electric utilities to voluntarily reduce toxic emissions.