Hill

Duke Energy International, LLC (DEI) acquired Broken HillProprietary Company Ltd.’s power business (BHP Power) for $315million. The purchase will establish DEI as an industrial energyfacility operator in the emerging competitive Australianelectricity market.

Capitol Hill lawmakers, federal and state regulators and anumber of power industry representatives last week indicated thatthe results of the FERC staff inquiry into the pricing turmoil inthe Midwest power market were a vindication of their originalsuspicions. Staff proved once and for all, they said, thatelectricity restructuring was not the culprit behind the pricespike in late June, and it found nothing that smacked of marketmanipulation.

The Gulf Coast from Brownsville, TX, to Spring Hill, FL, hasbeen hit by 34 intense hurricanes this century, and there’s a highprobability one could make an unwelcome visit in 1998. In his firstlook at hurricane landfall probabilities, esteemed hurricaneforecaster William Gray of Colorado State University said the GulfCoast region is 14% more likely to suffer through an intensehurricane (category 3, 4, or 5) and 16% more likely to be hit by alower level cyclone this year than the average landfall probabilityover the past 98 years.

Given the recent price spikes in the Midwest and Californiaelectricity markets, a California power agency has called onCongress to take the necessary steps to rein in unleashed marketpower when it takes up restructuring legislation next year.

Cash prices took a cue from the futures screen Thursday andpulled out of their headlong dive that has dominated the marketsince Monday. But sources considered the general leveling off ofprices, which leaned slightly to the softer side, as onlytemporary. Noting that Northern market areas already have startedcooling off from their recent temperature heights and that thecooling trend is expected to spread further this weekend, manytraders expect the general downturn to resume today.

In one of its speediest confirmations ever on Capitol Hill, theSenate on Friday approved by unanimous consent the re-appointmentof Commissioner William L. Massey to a second five-year term on theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission.