Considerations

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Thursday rejected a request from the state’s major private-sector utilities to reduce the burden on businesses that pay a disproportionate amount of the surcharge on monthly natural gas utility bills that goes for public purpose programs, such as those that assist low-income customers with their bills.

Diversified energy and utility holding company Black Hills Corp. said Wednesday that CFO Mark Thies resigned for “personal considerations and health” effective Friday. CEO David Emery will fill in as CFO for an interim period. Emery said the Rapid City, SD-based company has retained an executive search firm to assist in identifying a replacement for Thies, who had been with the company 10 years. The company has retail and wholesale utility and merchant energy businesses in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and other states.

Buoyed by strong demand for physical supplies and aggressivebuying under last week’s price chart gap, the natural gas futuresmarket continued to whittle away at last week’s collapse. Theremaining three months of the millennium received almost equalbuying interest Tuesday, with October, November and Decemberadvancing 11.6, 11.9, and 11.6 cents respectively. Estimated volumewas hefty, with 81,210 contracts changing hands.