Un-American Activities

I would like to comment on Joseph Paquette's letter ("Stranded-cost Recovery: It's Constitutional," Mailbag, Oct. 1, 1996) responding to Charles Studness (Stranded-cost Recovery: It's Un-American," Financial News, July 15, 1996, p. 43).

Mr. Paquette suggests that denying recovery of stranded costs amounts to an unconstitutional taking of private property.

John L. Carter was elected to Tucson Electric Power Co.'s board of directors. He replaces J. Burgess Winter, who resigned. Carter recently retired as executive v.p. and CFO of Burr-Brown Corp.

Madison Gas and Electric Co. promoted Terry A. Hanson to v.p. and treasurer. Hanson, who joined the company in 1981, had been treasurer.

Connecticut Natural Gas Corp. promoted two executives and hired a third.

It was the week before Thanksgiving. On the train ride home (I live in downtown Washington, DC, in an old, sprawling apartment building that once claimed Huey Long and Richard Nixon as tenants), my attention was drawn to a frazzled female lawyer sitting in the seat next to me, who was feverishly making notes in the margins of a thick, serious-looking, legal-sized document.

I confess. I like to read over people's shoulders, but often lose interest after the first few words. This case was different, though.

Utilities Shut Out of Third-quarter Stock Upswing

Utility stocks treaded water during the third quarter, while most stocks nationally took flight. This lackluster quarterly performance in the utilities sector proved most prevalent in the Public Utilities Stock Index. The box score: Our index fell 43.96 points, or 1.11 percent, to conclude the three-month period at 3908.43.

In stark contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average powered itself 227.54 points higher, or 4.02 percent, en route to a record high of 5882.17.

AT&T and U S WEST scored points with investors, but PacTel's AirTouch deal failed to move the market.ell before the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed, it had become abundantly clear to telephone companies that they would need to change their organizational or corporate structures to keep pace with the changing business and regulatory climate.

The question, however, was how to make that structural change pay off on Wall Street (em how to use the reorganizati

preference before diving into telecommunications.Electric utilities would enjoy a strong measure of credibility with consumers should they decide to enter the telephone business.

That finding comes from a recent nationwide survey of more than 1,000 households, drawn from counties with a population of at least 85,000 (see box for details).

Once burned, but twice eager, utilities reprise their 1980s-era strategy, this time in the telephone business.

"It's not like they're going to open a pharmacy. It is directly related in some way, or at least arguably."

Earlier this year, 15 utilities grabbed the brass ring: a full-blown chance to enter the telecom business.

How the electric industry uses DSM and IRP to build load, ignoring basic truths found in fuel-cycle analysis.It was during the early 19th century that General von Clausewitz announced his nine principles of warfare.

After reviewing an application by National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp., a local distribution company (LDC), to increase its purchased-gas cost rate, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has ordered the LDC to credit its sales customers with revenues collected from the transportation class as penalties for exceeding the current 10-percent limit on delivery imbalances. The PUC explained that costs for storage capacity due to overdeliveries by transportation users should be paid for by the class of customers responsible for such costs.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has extended its interim approval of the "Interstate Pipeline Capacity Sharing Program" implemented by Southwest Gas Corp.

The plan allows the gas utility to buy gas on the spot market from areas outside the area served by its traditional pipeline supplier, El Paso Natural Gas Co., and then transport the gas using pipeline capacity held by El Paso's other operating divisions in Nevada and California. The utility then credits the contributing pipeline division with one-half of the commodity-cost savings as compensation.