Lighting

The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) placed 208 trucks out of service in a three-day enforcement sweep that focused on commercial vehicles that haul wastewater from Marcellus Shale gas drilling sites, Police Commissioner Frank E. Pawlowski said Wednesday.

Rising expectations for completion of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline are lighting a fire under natural gas exploration along the 1,220-kilometer (760-mile) route through Canada’s Northwest Territories from the coast of the Beaufort Sea to Alberta. A week after the pipeline’s sponsors set a 2006 target for starting pipeline construction, 10 gas producers scooped up a total of 776 square miles of drilling rights in five leases in the valley and on the Mackenzie Delta.

The CEO of the miniscule Long Beach, CA-based street lighting company aiming to buy financially crippled Edison International said last week he is establishing a joint powers arrangement among more than 200 cities and townships in the southern half of California to help make the deal economically and politically viable. However, the long shot, high-stakes gambling approach is totally contingent on the California legislature failing to pass a rescue bill for the Edison utility.

The other shoe – five times larger than the first – dropped onReliant Energy’s Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P) lastweek in a case that found the utility defrauded three Texas citiesof fees owed for its exclusive right to sell electricity. Adistrict court jury in Houston awarded the three cities $10 millioneach in punitive damages. That’s on top of $4.2 million in actualdamages (about $6 million including interest and attorneys’ fees)awarded two weeks ago.

The other shoe – five times larger than the first – dropped on Reliant Energy’s Houston Lighting & Power Co. (HL&P) Tuesday in a case that found the utility defrauded three Texas cities of fees owed for its exclusive right to sell electricity. Yesterday, a district court jury in Houston awarded the three cities $10 million each in punitive damages. That’s on top of $4.2 million in actual damages (about $6 million including interest and attorneys’ fees) awarded last week (see Daily GPI April 3).

Reliant Energy’s Houston Lighting & Power (HL&P) couldbe on the hook for millions depending upon punitive damagesassessed in a case that has hit the utility with $4.2 million inactual damages awarded to three Texas cities. Lawyers for theplaintiffs last week suggested a punitive award in the range of $40million would be appropriate.

KeySpan Energy Corp. combined last week with Long IslandLighting Co. (LILCO) to form MarketSpan Corp., a new holdingcompany dedicated to market growth in the Northeast as well asinvestments in energy in North America and abroad.

The apparent success of the Alliance Pipeline Project islighting a fire under government and industry plans to build upnatural gas production behind its starting point, in northeasternBritish Columbia, into a mainstay of supplies for markets east ofthe Rocky Mountains.