Private

A newly formed alliance composed of California air quality, transportation and energy officials and private sector representatives released a list of specific goals last week for the deployment of more natural gas powered vehicles (NGVs) across the state.

A newly formed alliance composed of California air quality, transportation and energy officials and private sector representatives released a list of specific goals Tuesday for the deployment of more natural gas powered vehicles (NGVs) across the state.

Rand Capital Corp. invested $500,000 in convertible promissory notes in Buffalo, NY-based Somerset Gas Transmission Co. LLC as part of a $3 million private placement bridge loan. Rand’s investment also provided a warrant for a minority equity interest in the company, which is planning to provide interstate natural gas pipeline transportation services from the Chicago hub and Appalachian producing basins to markets in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic. Somerset’s plan involves gas transportation through its own pipelines and the lines of others. One of Somerset’s initial acquisitions was a 40-mile section of gathering line and related facilities in Indiana County, PA, from Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. “The Somerset management team has worked for more than five years to assemble a network of pipelines and rights-of-way to transport natural gas,” said Rand CFO Daniel P. Penberthy. “Rand’s funding will allow the company to continue this acquisition strategy as the company completes their pipeline network. In this regard, Rand’s investment is structured to provide both a current return and provides the option for Rand to participate in the company’s next round of financing.”

Rand Capital Corp. invested $500,000 in convertible promissory notes in Buffalo, NY-based Somerset Gas Transmission Co. LLC as part of a $3 million private placement bridge loan. Rand’s investment also provided a warrant for a minority equity interest in the company, which is planning to provide interstate natural gas pipeline transportation services from the Chicago hub and Appalachian producing basins to markets in the Northeast and Mid Atlantic. Somerset’s plan involves gas transportation through its own pipelines and the lines of others. One of Somerset’s initial acquisitions was a 40-mile section of gathering line and related facilities in Indiana County, PA, from Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. “The Somerset management team has worked for more than five years to assemble a network of pipelines and rights-of-way to transport natural gas,” said Rand CFO Daniel P. Penberthy. “Rand’s funding will allow the company to continue this acquisition strategy as the company completes their pipeline network. In this regard, Rand’s investment is structured to provide both a current return and provides the option for Rand to participate in the company’s next round of financing.”

With strong opposition from the state’s two major private sector utilities, a proposal to merge the natural gas-buying portfolios of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s two utilities will be delayed until after a newly-ordered statewide regulatory investigation is completed, according to one of the commissioners on the five-member California Public Utilities Commission.

For the first time, both of the state’s major private-sector utilities, Edison International and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., made the California Common Cause list of Top 10 contributors to state political campaigns for 1999-2000, ranking sixth and seventh respectively, each contributing more than $1 million.

Over the strong protests of its large public and private-sector electric generating customers, Sempra Energy’s two California utilities later this year will merge their natural gas buying operations as an efficiency move if state regulators okay a currently proposed decision from one of their administrative law judges. Although the two utilities are in the process of merging their management functions throughout each organization, the gas-buying combination has been a proposal since the time of the merger that eventually would form Sempra was announced in the fall of 1996.

Over the strong protests of its large public and private-sector electric generating customers, Sempra Energy’s two California utilities later this year will merge their natural gas buying operations as an efficiency move if state regulators okay a currently proposed decision from one of their administrative law judges. Although the two utilities are in the process of merging their management functions throughout each organization, the gas-buying combination has been a proposal since the time of the merger that eventually would form Sempra was announced in the fall of 1996.

California’s second largest private-sector utility, Southern California Edison Co., on Friday obtained $1.8 billion in secured financing and along with cash on hand that had been steadily increasing since the mid-part of last year paid off all of the past-due part of its outstanding $5.5 billion to its creditors. The utility detailed the transaction in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.