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The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control finallypassed down its much-delayed approval of Consolidated Edison’s(CEI) acquisition of Northeast Utilities (NU). The problem is,neither company, nor the state’s attorney general, is markingDPUC’s heavily conditional approval in the win column.

Vectren Corp. announced that the Indiana Supreme Court hasoverturned an appeals court verdict and affirmed the Sept. 12, 1997order of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), that thegas supply agreements between utilities Indiana Gas and CitizensGas and Coke and their joint venture marketing affiliate, ProLianceEnergy, are in the public interest.

The Democrats hardly mentioned the word “energy” in theirplatform at the August convention, but President Clinton last weektried to make up for that omission by ordering the release of 30million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve(SPR), as well as a record $400 million of funding for energyassistance to low-income households for this winter.

California Gov. Gray Davis is focused on anything but energythis week as he sorts through 1,400 pieces of new state legislationawaiting his signature by a Sept. 30 deadline, but he is expectedto re-focus on the simmering electricity issues next month,according to aides in Sacramento, CA.

TECO Energy raised its earnings forecast for this year and next,saying its core businesses are expected to post 10% growth, leadingto a 2000 upside for the company at 10 to 15 cents per share.

New England regulators and market participants said they supportan investigation by FERC into the operation of the installedcapacity (ICAP) market in the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL)during this past April-July period.

Phillips Petroleum announced yesterday that it has done somecoal-bed methane shopping recently. Phillips acquired River GasCorp., a privately held coal-bed methane producer, as well ascoal-bed methane positions of three other companies located in thePowder River Basin of Wyoming. The cost of the four transactionsfor was $123 million in cash.

Northern Border Partners, LP, announced it has completed itspreviously announced acquisition of gas gathering facilities in thePowder River and Wind River Basins in Wyoming for $200 million fromEnron North America Corp. The purchase includes ownership positionsin Bighorn Gas Gathering and Fort Union Gas Gathering in the PowderRiver Basin and Lost Creek Gathering in the Wind River Basin. Inconjunction with the acquisition, NBP and ENA have agreed toprovide complementary services in the Basins. NBP will own andoperate physical assets and will provide gathering andtransportation services. ENA will continue to provide gas purchaseand sales, finance, risk management and producer outsourcingservices. The partnership also declared an increase in cashdistribution yesterday to $0.70 from $0.65 per unit. The indicatedannual rate is now $2.80 per unit. The increase becomes effectivewith the third quarter distribution payable on Nov. 14. It is thepartnership’s fourth increase in the last three years. NorthernBorder Partners, LP owns a 70% general partner interest in NorthernBorder Pipeline Co., which owns a 1,214-mile interstate pipelinesystem that transports approximately 23 percent of all Canadiannatural gas imports into the United States.

Nymex Chairman Daniel Rappaport last week sent a letter to Rep.Larry Combest, Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture,raising concern over a subsection of H.R. 4541, the “CommodityFutures Modernization Act of 2000,” which would exempt electronicenergy derivatives trading from regulatory oversight.