Delay

The terrorist attack on New York has delayed a shareholder vote on Montana Power Co.’s planned sale of its gas and power distribution business to NorthWestern Corp. for $602 million in cash and assumption of $488 million in debt. The vote was scheduled to take place on Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Mother Lode Theater in Butte, MT, however the New York company in charge of tabulating the votes was affected by the terrorist attacks. In addition, the New York Stock Exchange is closed and isn’t expected to open until Monday.

While he strongly supports a money settlement between parties in the high profile case alleging affiliate and market-power abuse on the part of El Paso Corp. subsidiaries, FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr. indicated that he won’t postpone issuing his initial decision to accommodate settlement negotiations. Assuming a settlement is not brokered, Wagner said he “feels strongly that this case should proceed to decision at the very earliest possible date.”

An early test is developing of the U.S. government’s declared intentions to help speed up gas pipeline projects, and of pledges by Canadian authorities to co-operate in cross-border projects. After waiting fruitlessly for a year for U.S. partners to obtain approvals, the Canadian Millennium Project has asked the National Energy Board to give it a last chance to stay alive on the Canadian side and wait for U.S. action.

Plans by the House Energy and Commerce Committee to mark up emergency legislation designed to provide relief to the troubled California wholesale energy markets were delayed yesterday after last-minute negotiations broke out between Democrats and Republicans over the measure.

After a day’s delay for some last-minute horse-trading, California regulators decided Tuesday to spread a $5.7 billion (3-cent/kW) rate increase to both moderate and large energy users to encourage power conservation going into the critical summer peak-demand period. The increase, which was okayed March 27, takes effect June 1 for Pacific Gas and Electric and June 3 for Southern California Edison with five “rate tiers” tied to consumption levels.

Following more than a nine-hour delay to the start of the FERC meeting last Wednesday, a very divided Commission voted out a controversial market monitoring and mitigation plan in an attempt to bring some measure of sanity to wholesale power prices in the out-of-control California energy market over the next year.

Following more than a nine-hour delay to the start of FERC meeting yesterday, a very divided Commission voted out a controversial market monitoring and mitigation plan that will attempt to tame wholesale power prices in the ailing California energy market over the next year.

After a two-year delay because of computer snafus related tobilling, East Ohio Gas finally is preparing to join the state’s twoother major gas distribution companies in offering customer choiceacross its entire system. It also has agreed to stop sellingnatural gas entirely by 2004.

After a two-year delay because of computer snafus related tobilling, East Ohio Gas finally is preparing to join the state’s twoother major gas distribution companies in offering customer choiceacross its entire system. It also has agreed to stop sellingnatural gas entirely by 2004.