The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has ruled that Florida Power and Light Co. (FP&L) is protected by the state action immunity doctrine from liability to cogenerators (QFs) for alleged antitrust violations. The QFs had claimed that FP&L violated federal antitrust laws when it refused to wheel their power to offsite end users.
A New York appeals court has upheld a 1994 decision by the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) authorizing a qualifying cogeneration facility (QF) to make retail sales to certain industrial customers in the service territory of a retail electric utility. The PSC had authorized Sithe/ Independence Power Partners L.P. (em developers of a 1040-megawatt natural gas fired QF (em to sell electricity to steam host customers Alcan Rolled Products Co. and Liberty Paperboard L.P. See, Re Sithe/Independence Power Partners L.P., 155 PUR4th 149 (N.Y.P.S.C. 1994).
of charitable giving at 11 investor-owned electric utilities from across the country.
Of those companies surveyed, one pegged its charitable contributions budget as a percent of revenue. Some indicated that they
followed the "utility average" of giving 0.5 percent of income before taxes. (The national average for all companies is 0.9 percent.) Four utilities reported donations at or above that figure.
Aquila Power Corp., a UtiliCorp United subsidiary, has hired two executives to expand its market into the western United States. Timothy J. Culbertson, from Portland General Electric, will lead power marketing in the Pacific Northwest. David L. Metz will lead power marketing in the Southwest. Metz comes from Arizona Public Service Co.Consolidated Natural Gas Co. has named Bruce E. Plichta international financial analyst and James M. Mulcahy senior financial analyst.
The New England Electric System (NEES) has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission for authority to separate
generation and transmission, and to create a
transmission subsidiary called NEES Transmission Services, Inc. NEES Transmission has filed proposed transmission tariffs at the FERC that would give its wholesale customers, including New England Power Co.
The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to review its experimental "Open Market Plan" to introduce competition to the local telephone market in the Rochester, NY area.
In opening its investigation of electric utility restructuring, the Utah Public Service Commission (PSC) has begun by directing PacifiCorp to submit a legal analysis of the "cost-based standard" for ratemaking, as enunciated two years ago in a state supreme court opinion.
In 1994, the court had overturned an incentive regulation plan OK'd by the PSC for a local exchange telephone carrier because it ignored statutory cost-of-service principles.
The Ohio Supreme Court has overturned an alternative regulation price-cap plan approved by the state public utilities commission (PUC) for Ameritech Ohio, a local exchange telephone carrier (LEC) formerly known as the Ohio Bell Telephone Co. The court also expressed "grave concern" that the PUC had accepted a partial settlement agreement in the case without the participation of the LEC's competitors.
TET had asserted in February that its monthly imbalance mechanism enabled shippers to game the cash-out mechanism during the recent rapid and large price fluctuations in the spot gas market.
If the new rules of electric industry competition don't permit stranded-cost recovery, the credibility of the U.S. government would be seriously undermined. Or so an executive of one of the country's largest utilities told a Senate energy panel."We just have to keep in mind we incurred these costs based under what the rules were," said Jerry Jackson of Entergy Corp. "If the government is going to change those rules . . .