Gary

Gary G. Ely, a 34-year-veteran of Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp., was elected chairman of the board, and will retain his titles of president and CEO. He succeeds Larry A. Stanley as chairman, who retired after serving on the board since 1991 and as non-executive chairman since last November. Ely, 53, was named president and CEO in November 2000 after briefly serving as acting president and CEO. He had held the position of executive vice president of Avista before that. In recent months, Ely has been credited with helping Avista Utilities regain its financial strength and with developing a long-term strategy on power issues.

If convergence is what’s driving the energy industry, thenNiSource Chairman Gary Neale could be a good candidate to pilot theAmerican Gas Association into the new millennium. Neale is theAGA’s new chairman, but he’s also chairman of National ElectricityReliability Council, is on the board of directors of EdisonElectric Institute and spends his spare time attempting a hostiletakeover of Columbia Energy Group.

If convergence is what’s driving the energy industry, thenNiSource Chairman Gary Neale could be a good candidate to pilot theAmerican Gas Association into the new millennium. Neale is theAGA’s new chairman, but he’s also chairman of National ElectricityReliability Council, is on the board of directors of EdisonElectric Institute and spends his spare time attempting a hostiletakeover of Columbia Energy Group.

Southern Company Energy Marketing’s new president, GaryMorsches, shifted some personnel around yesterday to optimizeperformance. John Ragan, formerly west regional vice president,becomes east regional vice president. He also will oversee SCEM’scommodities group, which handles trading in coal, emissionscredits, weather derivatives and pulp/paper markets. Bill Orr,formerly northeast regional vice president, becomes west regionalvice president. Jay Catasein, project development vice president,becomes northeast regional vice president. Ron Erd is promoted fromdirector to vice president of market development. In addition toresponsibility for market development and structuring, Erd willassume responsibility for the project development group. SCEM is ajoint venture between Southern Energy Inc. and Vastar ResourcesInc.

Southern Company Energy Marketing (SCEM), the energy trading andmarketing joint venture of Southern Energy Inc. and VastarResources, Inc., has named Gary J. Morsches president. Currentlysenior vice president and COO, Morsches will have responsibilityfor all of SCEM’s commercial and administrative functions. He willoversee the trading, marketing, asset management, structuring,research and human resources functions for the company. MarceFuller, previously SCEM’s CEO, was named president and CEO ofSouthern Energy in July.

NiSource Chairman Gary Neale yesterday called on Columbiaofficials to provide detailed information to shareholders regardingincreased “golden parachutes” approved last week for 30 Columbiaofficials. In a letter to Columbia CEO Oliver G. (Rick) RichardIII, Neale also said he was “distressed to hear that you and yourchief financial officer, Mike O’Donnell, repeatedlymischaracterized the financing” of NiSource’s $68/share hostiletakeover offer ($5.7 billion) to Columbia shareholders during anearnings teleconference last week (see Daily GPI July 16, July 15,June25, June 11 and June 8).

NiSource Chairman Gary Neale said his company has been meetingwith shareholders representing more than 30% of Columbia EnergyGroup’s outstanding common stock, including six of the eightlargest shareholders, and has found the investors eager to see thetwo companies begin negotiations on a potential merger transaction.

New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson signed into law a bill opening thestate’s electric power market to consumer choice beginning in 2001.

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania CEO Gary J. Robinson praised aproposal by Pennsylvania’s governor to eliminate the 5% grossreceipts tax levied on the state’s residential gas users.