Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Wed, Apr 1 1992 Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 05:43:26 EST Message-ID: 04-01 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update April 1, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network DOE SHOULD STORE NUCLEAR WASTE: A Northern States Power Co. executive urged Congress on Tuesday to order the Department of Energy to temporarily store nuclear power plant waste until a permanent federal storage site can be created. The Senate Energy Committee heard testimony on the issue but took no action Tuesday. Further hearings are expected. (For more, see special Storage package below.) OIL PRICES UP: Oil prices rose Tuesday, boosted in part by a U.N. vote to impose sanctions on Libya. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in May settled at $19.44 per barrel, up 19 cents from Monday, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices rose in part due to the U.N. imposition of an air travel and arms sale embargo on Libya for its refusal to turn over six men wanted in two airline bombings. REFINED PRODUCTS GAIN: Refined products also posted gains Tuesday at the Mercantile Exchange. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in April settled at 58.76 cents a gallon, up 0.31 cent. Home heating oil for delivery in April settled at 53.73 cents a gallon, up 0.67 cent. Natural gas prices rose, with contracts for delivery in May settling at $1.357 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 2.5 cents. IRS SAYS COLUMBIA OWES $554M: Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. owes the Internal Revenue Service $553.7 million in back taxes, according to a federal bankruptcy claim filed in March. The IRS was among thousands of creditors that filed claims approaching $10 billion in Wilmington, Del., in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of Columbia Gas System Inc. and its Charleston subsidiary, company officials said Tuesday. APPROVAL SOUGHT FOR NEW COMPANY: Entergy Corp. and its non-utility subsidiary, Electec, Inc., Tuesday asked the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to form another subsidiary. Entergy said the proposed new subsidiary, which has yet to be named, would then acquire the assets and lighting services business of American Systems and Service, Inc. and begin offering energy efficiency services. MERGER COMPLETED IN KANSAS: The merger between Kansas Power and Light Co. and Kansas Gas and Electric Co. has been completed and became effective Tuesday, forming the state's largest utility. The action makes KG&E a wholly-owned subsidiary of KPL, which does business as KPL Gas Service. The new company will provide natural gas service to 1.1 million customers and electric service to 566,000 customers. CONNECTICUT APPROVES MERGER: Connecticut on Tuesday approved the $2.3 billion merger between Northeast Utilities and financially troubled Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, giving one power supplier control over New England's key transmission lines. Competitors opposed the plan, saying Northeast Utilities would have a monopoly. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said antitrust laws weren't broken by the merger. EPA SAYS WASTE LAWS VIOLATED: The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it has found violations of federal hazardous waste laws at the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines. If proven, the violations, which include the shipping of waste oil tainted with toxic solvents, could cost AMAX Coal Co. over $100,000 in fines. AMAX said the mines will contest the EPA complaint. HAWKINS ENERGY REPORTS RESULTS: Hawkins Energy Corp. Tuesday reported a loss of $371,000, or $0.10 per share, on revenues of $5.88 million for the year ended Dec. 31. That compares with a loss of $347,000 on revenues of $6.32 million for the prior year. Thomas F. Ostrye, president, said the 1991 results were attributable to depressed natural gas prices which decreased revenues from the sale of natural gas. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON STORAGE: NSP PLANT MAY HAVE TO CLOSE: If the federal government fails to take over nuclear power plant waste on an emergency basis, some plants - including NSP's Prairie Island facility at Red Wing, Minn. - may have to close, said Hazel O'Leary, the utility's executive vice president. She said that Prairie Island, which generates 1,040 megawatts of electricity, will run out of on-site storage by the end of 1994. ADDITIONAL FUNDING REQUESTED: Provisions of federal law that had allowed the DOE to store waste on an emergency basis have expired. O'Leary asked that those regulations be reinstated, and that DOE's 1993 request for $392 million in waste management funds be approved. The figure represents a 42% increase in program funding. NSP supports an additional $70 million to speed DOE research into the problem. FUNDING CUT `SPELLS DELAY': O'Leary told Senate and House energy committee hearings that if the waste issue is not resolved, "there will be no new investment in nuclear power under present circumstances." O'Leary said NSP's board of directors learned in a 1991 tour of DOE's proposed Yucca Mountain, Nev., storage site that the project is "years behind schedule." "Any cut in funding spells delay," she said. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. 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