The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted two certificates for natural gas pipeline projects in the Southeastern U.S. One certificate went to Southern Natural Gas Co. for construction of a controversial pipeline to serve two municipal customers; a second was issued to Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. for the largest single expansion of its pipeline and storage system.

The FERC on May 28 voted 5-0 to grant a certificate to Southern Natural Gas Co. to construct approximately 118 miles of natural gas pipeline to serve two municipal customers.

Douglas W.

Feds prefer legislative solution for now, but warn of bid-rigging, cartel behavior later on, after deregulation.

One of the nation's top antitrust officials told the House Judiciary Committee in June that moves toward utility deregulation should focus first on open access to the transmission grid (em and then resolve that problem through rulemaking or legislation, not antitrust enforcement.

"Antitrust is probably not the best way to address access," said Robert Pitofsky, Federal Trade Commission chair.

Does a monopolist aim to maximize profit, or simply to hide from the antitrust laws?

AT&T's absolute monopoly in the switched long-distance telephone market ended in 1976 when MCI rolled out its Execunet service. Twenty years later economists still question whether AT&T can influence the market price of long-distance services.

Recent empirical studies are split on the question, sometimes finding AT&T has considerable market power, and sometimes finding it has none.

It appears that economists studying the long-distance industry may be misinterpreting the historical record.

Connecticut's proposed electric restructuring legislation, H.B. 6774, died after being dropped unexpectedly by the state Senate. Backers of restructuring legislation plan to reintroduce the bill next year when the new session begins in February 1998.

The bill would have opened markets to competition Jan. 1, 2000, coupled with a 10-percent rate cut. Under the bill, utilities would have recovered up to 65 percent of stranded costs for above-market nuclear investments and 100 percent for regulatory assets. The bill would have allowed securitization of those costs.

At a proceeding marred by hecklers and the arrest of five protesters, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission finalized a preliminary decision awarding PECO Energy Co. $1.1 billion of its requested $3.8 billion in stranded cost recovery (Docket R-00973877).

On May 8, by a 4-1 vote, the PUC issued a nonbinding order to allow PECO to refinance the $1.1 billion in stranded costs at lower interest rates through issuance of asset securitization bonds to be paid over 10 years.

KU Energy and LG&E Energy have announced a merger agreement that could save the companies more than $760 million over 10 years and result in a rate cut of almost 2 percent for each of the next five years.

KU Energy, the parent company of Kentucky Utilities Co., and LG&E Energy, the parent of Louisville Gas & Electric Co., on May 21 announced the agreement to merge into a new holding company called LG&E Energy. The transaction is valued at more than $3 billion, with the combined companies holding assets of more than $4.7 billion.

The New York Public Service Commission has set up procedures to reimburse qualifying cogeneration and small power production facilities if any of the state's seven investor-owned electric utilities should curtail purchases of power from the QFs. The Independent Power Producers of New York Inc. blasted the decision.

The PSC said it will review QF requests for reimbursement if a utility is alleged to have curtailed purchases unfairly.

A new report from Moody's Investors Service finds that foreign investments often offer U.S. electric utility shareholders the prospect of higher returns, but hold little immediate upside benefits for bondholders.

The report, Some Investments Riskier Than Others in Wave of Overseas Expansion by U.S. Electric Utilities, finds that for bondholders, such investments detract from alternative uses of free cash flow. The bondholder could apply the invested money to debt service or repayment, or growing retained earnings to offset potential write-offs of stranded investment.

Eastern Edison Co. and Montaup Electric Co., both subsidiaries of Eastern Utilities Associates, have each filed an agreement with the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to introduce electric industry competition.

The target date for introduction of competition is Jan. 1, 1998, when Eastern Edison customers would experience a 10-percent rate cut or could choose an alternate electric supplier. Retail rates would be frozen until Dec. 31, 2000. But customers staying with the utility would be offered a price starting at 2.8 cents per kilowatt-hour.