Pacificorp

Pacificorp offered Friday to acquire Pinnacle West Capital Corp., three weeks after proposing a buyout of the company's Arizona Public Service Co., its only profitable division. Pacificorp, which has interests in electric utilities in seven Western states, made its offer contingent on the sale of MeraBank, Pinnacle West's troubled savings bank subsidiary. Portland-based Pacificorp offered to exchange 0.18 of a share of its own stock for each outstanding Pinnacle West share.

In a major boost for California's dwindling salmon stocks, a utility company has agreed to the removal of four hydroelectric dams that for decades have blocked fish migrations on one of the West Coast's most important salmon rivers. The dam decommissioning is vital to restoring the Klamath River, which for years has been the subject of bitter feuding among farmers, fishermen and tribal interests. It would open historic salmon spawning and rearing grounds on the upper reaches of the river, which winds from southern Oregon through the Cascades and Coast Ranges to California's Pacific Coast.

PacifiCorp's demand to renegotiate $66.9-million worth of electricity contracts signed with suppliers during the Western power crisis was dismissed by a judge with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC Judge Isaac Benkin said the contracts that Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp signed with Reliant Resources Inc., Morgan Stanley, Williams Cos. and El Paso Corp. were fair and should not be canceled. The ruling goes to FERC's three commissioners.

Two power companies will pay $84 million to settle claims against them stemming from the 2000-01 California energy crisis, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said Thursday. The agency found widespread manipulation during the power crisis in Western states in 2000 and 2001, when California endured a huge jump in natural gas and electricity prices, rolling blackouts and the bankruptcy filing of its biggest utility.

PacifiCorp of Portland, Ore., sweetened its offer for Britain's Energy Group, offering $10.68 billion in cash and assumed debt. The power company offered $12.62 a share, 11% more than its previous bid in June. That offer expired in August after regulatory delays. PacifiCorp said it would assume $4.1 billion in debt, including Energy Group leasing obligations. PacifiCorp has an edge on two rivals for the company, Texas Utilities Co.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, reached a settlement with Oregon consumer groups and state regulatory staff members that would allow the company's purchase of PacifiCorp to proceed. MidAmerican needs the approval of Oregon and federal regulators to complete its $5.1-billion purchase of Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp from Scottish Power, which was announced in May.

Energy Group, Britain's biggest electricity distributor, said Tuesday it is in talks to be acquired by Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp for about $5.7 billion. PacifiCorp declined to comment. Energy Group, formed earlier this year through a spinoff of energy assets by Hanson, said any offer would be expected to be priced at a premium of about 20% to its closing share price on the London Stock Exchange of $9.49, or about $5 billion.

PacifiCorp, a Portland, Ore.-based power company, is seeking to sell its two smallest electric utilities, in California and Montana, to focus on deregulation efforts in five other states where it operates. PacifiCorp said its Pacific Power utilities in California and Montana sell electricity to 76,000 customers, or about 5.5% of its 1.4 million customers. The planned divestiture comes as states determine how much, and how quickly, they'll open electric utility monopolies to competition.

PacifiCorp received U.S. antitrust approval for its proposed $10.68-billion purchase of Energy Group, raising the stakes in what has turned into a takeover battle for the London-based utility. To win Federal Trade Commission clearance, Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp agreed to divest two coal mines on the Navajo reservation in Arizona that it would gain control of as part of the acquisition.

PacifiCorp, hit by losses and the prospect of lower rates, said Friday that it will sell nearly all operations aside from its electric utility business in the West and abandon global expansion plans. The announcement marked an abrupt about-face for the Portland, Ore.-based electric utility company, which a year ago was in the throes of an ultimately futile bid to acquire Britain's Energy Group.

The power company that owns four Klamath River dams blocking the migration of imperiled salmon launched a counterattack Monday against a recent government study that declared it cheaper to remove the structures than to keep them. Officials at Portland-based PacifiCorp said the study released by the California Energy Commission failed to account for certain unavoidable costs that could dramatically increase the price of demolition.

Federal officials called Tuesday for costly improvements to four Klamath River dams, a move that could hasten removal of a hydropower system that for generations has blocked imperiled salmon from their upriver spawning grounds. Interior and Commerce Department officials said that in order to get its license renewed, Portland-based PacifiCorp would be required to install fish ladders and screens to ease the salmon's annual migration.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission used its enforcement authority for the first time Thursday, levying $22.5 million in civil penalties on five power companies. PacifiCorp, Scana Corp., Entergy Corp., NorthWestern Energy Corp. and NRG Energy Inc. agreed to pay fines of $500,000 to $10 million for violating commission rules. "We've been very deliberate in the way we've approached this first use" of the penalty authority, Chairman Joseph Kelliher said.

In a victory for environmentalists, commercial fishermen and Indian tribes, a federal judge has backed a push by U.S. wildlife agencies for fish ladders over four Klamath River dams blamed for sagging salmon runs. The proposed fish passages would return chinook and endangered coho salmon as well as steelhead and Pacific lamprey to 350 miles of river cut off for more than half a century by the towering hydropower dams.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., controlled by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, reached a settlement with Oregon consumer groups and state regulatory staff members that would allow the company's purchase of PacifiCorp to proceed. MidAmerican needs the approval of Oregon and federal regulators to complete its $5.1-billion purchase of Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp from Scottish Power, which was announced in May.

Billionaire Warren E. Buffett placed his biggest wager yet on the utility industry Tuesday when his MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. agreed to buy Western electric-power supplier PacifiCorp for $5.1 billion in cash. The proposed purchase would be the famed investor's largest acquisition since 1998, when his investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., bought reinsurer General Re Corp. for $22 billion. MidAmerican Energy is 80% owned by Omaha-based Berkshire.

The lengthy battle between U.S. utilities PacifiCorp and Texas Utilities Co. for British power company Energy Group ended as PacifiCorp said it would not raise its offer. Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp said it is keeping its offer at about $7.2 billion; Dallas-based Texas Utilities is offering about $7.4 billion. British regulators had called for both U.S. companies to submit sealed bids by today, but PacifiCorp's decision means that the unusual process would be avoided.

PacifiCorp has agreed to buy British firm Energy Group for $6 billion in cash and plans to sell its Pacific Telecom unit to help finance the deal, a source close to PacifiCorp said. "The transaction is clearly going forward and an announcement will be made as soon as this week or early next week," said the source. "The financing package is being feverishly worked on and is what is causing a delay," he said.

PacifiCorp's demand to renegotiate $66.9-million worth of electricity contracts signed with suppliers during the Western power crisis was dismissed by a judge with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC Judge Isaac Benkin said the contracts that Portland, Ore.-based PacifiCorp signed with Reliant Resources Inc., Morgan Stanley, Williams Cos. and El Paso Corp. were fair and should not be canceled. The ruling goes to FERC's three commissioners.

A rare challenge is under way for the right to operate two hydropower dams on the Columbia River, just upstream of prime salmon-spawning habitat in the Hanford Reach. Investor-owned PacifiCorp, which does business in Washington as Pacific Power, has teamed with the Yakama Nation Indians, hoping to take over the Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams. The Grant County Public Utility District, which built the dams nearly half a century ago, won't give them up without a fight.