Plucked

Berry Petroleum Co., which plucked a bushel of natural gas-rich acreage in East Texas last month, sees some opportunity for bolt-on acquisitions, the CEO said Friday.

Less than a week after California’s governor plucked David Freeman to head the state’s stepped up, $850 million energy conservation program, the nation’s largest municipal utility in Los Angeles turned to a consultant and former head of a Texas private sector utility to replace Freeman as its general manager. Texan-turned-California-based consultant, David Wiggs Jr. will oversee the $3 billion LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) for five months, beginning May 1. During that time it is expected that the incoming new LA mayor will launch a nationwide search for a permanent replacement for Freeman, who has attained near-star status at LADWP and in other roles helping Gov. Gray Davis wrestle with the ongoing crisis among investor-owned utilities in the state. A utility regulatory lawyer with a finance background, Wiggs served as chairman, COO and president of El Paso Electric Co., leading the utility’s turnaround in the early 1990s. Since 1997, he has been a consultant, at DHW Consulting of Newport Beach, CA,working briefly with DWP in the spring of 1997 before Freeman was brought on board. He recently served as chief energy adviser to the speaker of the state legislature’s Assembly.