Pennsylvania

Southern Union Co. received final approval from the FederalEnergy Regulatory Commission for its merger with PennsylvaniaEnterprises Inc. The FERC approved transfer of control of powermarketing licenses held by Pacific Enterprises. The merger,announced June7, is expected to close Thursday.

While Eastern Pennsylvania utility, PP&ampL Resources, continuedits cross-country expansion, annexing assets in Montana and Maine,former utility Montana Power mapped out a future in oil, gas andtelecommunications.

PP&L Resources, a utility based in eastern Pennsylvania, iscementing its ties in the western U.S., buying the energy marketingoperation of The Montana Power Co. to go with the 13 powergeneration plants it is in the process of buying from the samecompany.

The Pennsylvania state senate will pass senate bill 601, (SB601), the gas deregulation bill for small commercial andresidential customers, on June 7, said a spokesman for Sen. JeffPiccola’s office. Piccola is the bill’s main sponsor in the statesenate.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said last week at a press briefing in Washington, D.C.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

National Fuel has filed an application with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission to begin a system-wide customer choiceprogram starting in April. The program would be a major expansionof the company’s current Energy Select pilot in Mercer County, inwhich 19,700 retail gas customers were allowed — actually forced– to choose alternative suppliers beginning in June 1997. Theexpanded program would offer a choice of suppliers to 210,000customers in National Fuel’s 14 county service territory. It alsowould include some significant differences from the Energy Selectpilot.

National Fuel has filed an application with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission to begin a system-wide customer choiceprogram starting next April. The program would be a major expansionof the company’s current Energy Select pilot in Mercer County, inwhich 19,700 retail gas customers were allowed – actually forced -to choose alternative suppliers beginning in June 1997. Theexpanded program would offer a choice of suppliers to 210,000customers in National Fuel’s 14 county service territory. It alsowould include some significant differences from the Energy Selectpilot.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania last week beat out Equitable Gas inthe bidding to provide service to new commercial and residentialbuildings that are slated to be constructed on a former LTV steelsite on the city of Pittsburgh’s South Side. The site, which isowned by the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), currentlyis in the midst of major redevelopment.