Archive for September, 2006
Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 30 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
Charlotte Observer via Topix:
Progress Energy’s stock was nearly unchanged late Friday afternoon, a day after another published report on Wall Street said that the Raleigh utility is in talks to be acquired.
SparkSpread reported that Atlanta-based Southern Co. and Progress Energy ‘are understood to be in advanced merger discussions’ to join forces and create one of the largest utilities in the United States. The report was based on an unidentified industry source and spurred six times the usual volume of trading in Progress shares Thursday.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 30 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
Pittsburgh Tribune Review:
Homeowners can expect this fall to pay natural gas bills with prices close to those of two years ago, before Hurricane Katrina spurred fuel shortages and price spikes…
It’s a matter of supply and demand.
“Market prices have been coming down because storage reports show there are more than adequate gas supplies for this winter,” said Joe Gregorini, Dominion’s manager for regulatory affairs and pricing.
Most of the hurricane-related damage to gas production facilities on the Gulf of Mexico has been repaired. Last winter’s weather was mild, and so far this year, weather events haven’t disrupted the gas industry.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 29 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
MarketWatch:
The Energy Department said natural-gas inventories rose 77 billion cubic feet for the week ended Sept. 22. Analysts at Strategic Energy & Economic Research expected an increase of 86 billion. Total stocks now stand at 3.254 trillion cubic feet, up 377 billion cubic feet from the year-ago level, and 354 billion cubic feet above the five-year average, the government data said. November natural gas shed 8.9 cents, or 1.2%, to $5.58 per million British thermal units.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
AP via Topix:
The chairman and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee have asked the Justice Department to delay approval of the merger of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp. until a federal court decides whether two previous mergers were in the public interest.
Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking the department delay its decision until a federal judge rules on the merger of SBC Communications Inc. and the old AT&T Corp., as well as the merger of Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
NY Newsday:
Gov. George Pataki has signed into law a bill allowing traditional telephone companies to reduce or eliminate fees on non-basic services, a move proponents say will lead to lower bills for consumers.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 28 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
Laos News:
New York’s Verizon Communications Inc. says its investment in boosting broadband capacity via fiber optic lines from 2004-10 will reach $18 billion.
The company also said Wednesday in a news release that it plans to pass 18 million premises with its fiber network by the end of 2010, or more than 50 percent of the approximately 33 million households in the company’s 28-state wireline service area.
Verizon predicted it will exceed 6 million homes with a new fiber optic network by the end of this year.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 27 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
South Florida Sentinel:
FPL Group Inc.’s chief executive told investors yesterday that his commitment to the merger with Constellation Energy Group Inc. will stretch only so far, raising new questions about the fate of the $11 billion utility deal and its promise of rate relief for some Maryland electricity customers.
Speaking at a conference in New York, Lewis Hay III said his patience is wearing thin with Maryland, particularly its legislature.
He accused the General Assembly of holding Florida-based FPL hostage while negotiating ways to stall an electricity rate increase for consumers this year.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 27 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
The New York Times:
Richard C. Notebaert, the chief executive of Qwest Communications, is not one for conventional wisdom. Just a year ago, many on Wall Street thought Qwest, the nation’s fourth-largest phone company, was so weak that it was bound to be broken up or sold.
But Mr. Notebaert has quietly and consistently proved them wrong. He has cut costs, stabilized revenue and built up so much cash that Qwest is actually in a position to buy another industry player — perhaps a wireless carrier or a provider of corporate telecommunications services.
Such a move would go a long way toward arming Qwest with the tools it needs to fend off cable companies, Internet phone providers like Vonage and cellphone carriers like Cingular that are luring away hundreds of thousands of its customers. It would also help Qwest contend with Verizon Communications and A.T.& T., which account for half of all sales of communications services to companies.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 27 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
USAToday:
At least seven men in five states have been fatally electrocuted since July while hacking through power lines to steal wire made of copper, which has been commanding near-record prices, police say.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza, Esq. on 26 Sep 2006 | Tagged as: General
Boston Globe:
After years of warning that New England’s electric grid was on the brink of having to impose Third World-style rolling blackouts, top power officials now cautiously predict the region may have enough power for the near future.
Since February, thanks to recent policy changes, proposals for 21 new power plants that could deliver enough electricity for about 3 million homes have come before regional power grid administrators. Those include a $1.5 billion NRG Energy Inc. plan for multiple new generators in Connecticut and a single generator that would burn methane gas from a dump in Westminster, near Fitchburg.
The Holyoke -based organization that runs the six-state power grid and wholesale markets, Independent System Operator New England, plans to discuss the projects in a two-day Boston conference starting today .
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