Atmos Energy Corp. and United Cities Gas Co. have announced an agreement to merge in a share-for-share exchange of common stock.
Atmos distributes natural gas to about 673,000 customers through its operating subsidiaries, Energas Co., Greeley Gas Co., Trans Louisiana Gas Co., and Western Kentucky Gas Co. United Cities distributes gas to about 310,000 customers, operates gas storage facilities, and distributes propane to 25,000 customers.
R.J. Rudden Associates, Inc. (RJRA) estimates U.S. nuclear plant stranded costs at $65.5 billion ($1994) if electric industry restructuring is fully implemented in 1997.
The firm's analysis relied on historic cost and performance data for each facility, and on RJRA projections of regional competitive prices for capacity and energy. RJRA said a slower restructuring would reduce the investment at risk to between $46.3 billion (year 2000) and $23.2 billion (year 2010).
Ronald L. Adams, an executive from Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, was named president of CNG Transmission Corp. He replaces L.J. Timms, Jr., who retired.
Lee Elder was hired by GE Nuclear Energy as manager of market development. Elder was g.m. of nuclear marketing and technology for Black & Veatch and started a joint venture between the two companies to service boiling water reactors.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission has hired Richard L. Heck, a former U.S.
Converging Markets:
The First REAL Electric/Gas MergerEnron's bid
to acquire Portland General heralds a new phase
in utility competition.
Why the Holding Company Act doesn't matter.
By Charles M. Studness
The merger agreement between Enron and Portland General Corp. has reshuffled the electric restructuring deck. It makes electric utilities takeover targets for outside suitors after 60 years of peaceful immunity.
Marriage of convenience eyes retail market.
By Richard S. Green and J. Michael Parish
Enron's proposed entry into the electric energy business is a "wake-up call." Open competition will continue to accelerate, and new, aggressive players will seek ways to become involved as the energy and energy services businesses converge.
A combined Enron/Portland General Corp.
Some shareholders do find bottom-line value
in a "marriage of convenience."
With six merger and acquisition (M&A) deals announced between May 1995 and January 1996, and three more so far this year, the long-predicted consolidation of the electric utility industry is taking hold. At least 23 utilities, with business-combination transactions pending, are part of the frenetic domestic M&A activity that has swept the industry.
But which one?
And how to adjust for different delivery points?FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS, THE WESTERN
Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC) has built a reputation for innovation in electric markets.
not a grab for power.
The jurisdictional issues posed by Order 888 continue to breed tension between federal and state officials. Unfortunately, most of this tension too often elevates form over substance. This jurisdictional tension shifts the focus of decisionmaking from securing the benefits of competition to preserving regulatory turf.
Labor Day found me trudging around in one of those "big box" discount stores, looking for a sale on a new refrigerator. Out West, California lawmakers spent the holiday putting together their own discount plan (em this one promising rate cuts for the state's residential electric consumers, funded by "rate reduction bonds" backed by a state-owned bank for economic development.
Either way you cut it, the holiday proved worthy of its name.
Chairman Miller's prediction that consumers and not producers will set future electricity prices is correct, assuming a competitive market. His observation (em that "states that move decisively to a competitive environment and that clear their decks of the debris of electricity companies' stranded costs as quickly as possible will be the winners" (em is equally correct. But estimates of stranded investments range from $20 to $500 billion. Who will pay to clear those "decks"?