Sticking

After waiting more than two years, American Electric Power andCentral and South West Corp. completed their merger yesterdayfollowing approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC). AEP chairman E. Linn Draper Jr. said the company’spost-merger strategy consists of three key elements: wholesale,energy delivery and retail.

The majority of cash points were down a few cents Thursday butstill sticking around in the vicinity of index levels. Despite somenegative influences, the California market even managed to maintainat least a nickel premium to index. Even with a huge swath of rainhaving a cooling effect on the Midwest and Northeast market areas,heat remained the big reason for only a modestly softeraftermarket. A screen drop of almost 9 cents had little impact oncash.

Kansas, a significant natural gas producing state, is stickingits toes in the water of retail gas competition with a notice ofinquiry (NOI) from the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), “thegoal of which is to explore whether extending restructuring to allretail consumers is in the public interest. We also wish to exploreother regulatory alternatives which may bring benefits to smallerretail gas consumers.”

Producing state Kansas is sticking its toes in the water ofretail gas competition with a notice of inquiry (NOI) from theKansas Corporation Commission (KCC), “the goal of which is toexplore whether extending restructuring to all retail consumers isin the public interest. We also wish to explore other regulatoryalternatives which may bring benefits to smaller retail gasconsumers.”