Milestone

Clearing an important milestone in its plans to acquire Westcoast Energy, Duke Energy announced it had received approval from the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) to acquire indirect control of the public utilities owned wholly or in part by Westcoast and regulated by the BCUC.

Consolidated Edison and Orange and Rockland Utilities passed amilestone on their way to merging with approval of the transactionFriday by the New York Public Service Commission (NYPSC). Themerger also has been approved by the New Jersey and Pennsylvaniaregulators and FERC. Con Ed plans to acquire all O&R’s commonstock for $58.50 per share, or about $790 million. O&R willbecome a wholly-owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison and willcontinue to operate as a separate company. The utilities areawaiting the approval of the Securities and Exchange Commission andcompletion of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act review by the U.S.Department of Justice and expect to close the transaction by nextmonth.

The Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline project last week crossedanother major milestone on its way toward bringing gas toNortheastern markets from Atlantic Canada for the first time inNovember 1999. FERC issued a final environmental impact statementon the 200-mile U.S. upstream portion of the system, concluding itwould have limited adverse environmental impact with therecommended mitigation.