General

The Delaware General Assembly passed legislation last week thatwill bring retail choice to the majority of the state’s electricitycustomers by October 2000 and to all of its power customers byApril 2001. The bill is expected to be signed into law by Gov.Thomas R. Carper next week.

General Electric (GE) announced Thursday it has entered into ajoint venture with Plug Power, a Latham NY-based company dedicatedto the development and manufacturing of fuel cells, to market fuelcells worldwide. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Thetwo companies will combine efforts to form a new company called GEFuel Cell Systems. GE will own 75% of the new company, with PlugPower owning the rest. GE also acquired 10% of Plug Power ownershipin the deal.

Eastern markets maintained the week’s general pattern of flatpricing Friday, even eking out small increases here and there. TheWest tended to be a little softer due to the usual weekend fall-offin demand, but the declines there were fairly minuscule at no morethan 1-4 cents down in nearly every case.

Legislation with drop-dead dates for 100% gas and electricderegulation continued to march through the New Jersey GeneralAssembly Friday, as the state senate’s Economic Growth Committeeagreed to send a bill to both the senate and assembly floors for avote on Tuesday. If passed, the bill would force the state’s gasindustry to allow supply competition statewide starting Dec. 31 andstatewide electric generation competition starting Aug. 1. For itto become law, the bill needs to win a simple majority in bothhouses.

A comprehensive report on gas unbundling released by the U.S.General Accounting Office found that as of July 31 of this yearonly about 3.9% of the of the residential gas customers eligible tobuy gas from suppliers other than their regulated gas utility weredoing so. Roughly 553,000 residential gas users behind thecitygates of 43 gas utilities in 16 states were participating incustomer choice programs. Commercial participation levels were notavailable. The report, titled Energy Deregulation: Status ofNatural Gas Customer Choice Programs, was requested by Sens. JeffBingaman (D-NM) and Dale L. Bumpers (D-AK).

A comprehensive report on gas unbundling released by the U.S.General Accounting Office found that as of July 31 of this yearonly about 3.9% of the of the residential gas customers eligible tobuy gas from suppliers other than their regulated gas utility weredoing so. Roughly 553,000 residential gas users behind thecitygates of 43 gas utilities in 16 states were participating incustomer choice programs. Commercial participation levels were notavailable. The report, titled Energy Deregulation: Status ofNatural Gas Customer Choice Programs, was requested by Sens. JeffBingaman (D-NM) and Dale L. Bumpers (D-AK).

The cash market was back on a downhill slide Wednesday as theuprising that had carried some points as much as 80-90 cents higherin the first two days of the week ran out of gas. The retrenchmentwas not unexpected because futures were falling for the second dayin a row and the colder weather that had driven the earlier uptickswas giving way to new forecasts calling for no colder than “normal”temperatures in many areas.

BP shareholders gave their overwhelming support to the company’smerger with Amoco last week. About 700 shareholders voted toapprove the merger at a general meeting at the Royal Festival Hallin London. Shareholders representing another 3.2 billion sharesvoted by proxy with 92% approving the merger. Chairman PeterSutherland called the vote a “massive endorsement” of the deal. Theall-stock transaction will result in a 60-40 equity split with BPshareholders having the majority.

This week’s general price downturn almost came to a haltWednesday, but mild softness remained the norm for most points.Quotes tended to range from flat to down about a nickel. Marketareas were getting colder but not by much, sources said, and thatwas outweighed by further softness in futures. With little toinfluence it, trading activity remains on the quiet side, theysaid.