Consumers want the credit option, study says.

More than 5 percent of all recurring bills - like phone, magazine and insurance bills - are paid with a credit card (see Chart 1), according to a study conducted by Market Facts Inc. for Visa U.S.A. Yet less than one-half of 1 percent of consumers pull out their plastic to pay utility bills (see Chart 3).

Here's one likely reason: Only 8 percent of all utilities accept credit card payments (see Chart 2). Utilities may want to reconsider their offerings, however.

The Alabama Public Service Commission has formally requested that state law enforcement officials prosecute a reseller of telecommunications services for ongoing incidents of "deceptive and misleading" marketing activities.

The so-called "slamming" practices include switching customers without documenting their consent. Earlier in the year, the commission had found that Long Distance Services Inc. had engaged in a series of improper practices, including the use of sweepstake boxes, to sign up new customers to its service without proper consent.

The New York Public Service Commission has directed Consolidated Edison Co. to modify its gas transportation rates to more accurately reflect costs.

The commission said that the tariff revisions mark a "major step" for a service territory where competition between the utility and gas marketers had not yet developed.

Regulators in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have taken steps to address relationships between natural gas utilities, customers, marketers and brokers operating in their respective states, announcing policies to cover such topics as fitness requirements, marketing practices and consumer protection.

One question that continues to raise concern is price arbitrage by marketers during supply emergencies that might affect service to captive residential customers.

Pennsylvania.

As it concluded its first review of an alternative rate plan for local telephone service, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved a series of telecommunications network upgrades and associated network modernization program for Bell Atlantic-New Jersey.

The original rate plan, approved in 1993, had combined the promise of a modernized telephone infrastructure with rate deregulation for certain competitive services and a freeze on rates for residential phone service. (See, Re New Jersey Bell Tel.

The California Public Utilities Commission has valued sunk costs for the Diablo Canyon nuclear generating plant at $3.287 billion. The ruling forms the basis for future ratemaking treatment for the plant assets by its owner, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., according to industry restructuring under way in the state.

The approved rate plan includes an overall rate freeze and a bond-financed 10-percent rate reduction for residential and small commercial customers. Both are called for under the state's new electric industry restructuring law (Assembly Bill 1890).

Regulated customers of Portland General Electric Co. will receive compensation both for lost profits and for future, anticipated efficiencies under the final decision issued by the Oregon Public Utility Commission that approved the merger between PGE and Enron Corp.

Under the approved merger plan, Enron will absorb the utility's corporate parent, Portland General Corp.

As a result of negotiations between the merging companies and the commission's staff, Enron has agreed to guarantee "monetary compensation and benefits" to Oregon ratepayers in the amount of $141 million.

Overturning a utility commission ruling, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has concluded that state law does not require an electric utility to prove that a planned transmission facility is needed from an engineering perspective to win a certificate of convenience authorizing construction.

The court overturned a ruling by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission that had denied an application by Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. to construct a 69-kilovolt transmission line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requiring an interstate pipeline company to sell excess low-cost storage gas supplies to its sales customers at cost, on the theory that ratepayers who bear risk for losses in industry restructuring should retain gains from the same process.

The pipeline, Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline Co., had found that excess gas was available after it had cut sales operations as part of the market restructuring ordered by the FERC.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Refusal to Wheel. Federal judge allows rural electric co-op to proceed with antitrust suit against PacifiCorp, ruling that doctrine of state action immunity does not insulate a regulated investor-owned electric utility from antitrust action for allegedly refusing to sell to sell power to others for resale to customers, or for allegedly refusing to wheel power generated by other suppliers.