Middlesex Water subsidiary
gets rate hike approval
Middlesex Water Company, a
provider of water, wastewater and related services, has announced that its
Delaware wholly owned subsidiary, Tidewater Utilities,
Inc., has received final approval from the Delaware Public Service Commission
(PSC) for a 26.9% or $3.9M
overall increase in annual revenues. Tidewater is a water utility serving more
than 30,000 residential and other customers in New Castle, Kent and Sussex
Counties in Delaware
News release 2/27/07
Brownfield Management & Cleanup Requirements: Guidelines to Ensure Compliance.
That's
the title of a 60-minute audio conference
presented by Carl B. Everett,
a partner with
Saul Ewing LLP. The
program is designed to provide business teams with strategies for the effective
management and cleanup of brownfields, and knowledge of how to ensure compliance
with Federal and state requirements. Everett has
been practicing environmental law for more than 30 years, focusing on CERCLA,
regulatory compliance, enforcement matters brought under federal and state
environmental statutes, and tort litigation. He has served
as common counsel to PRP groups involved in CERCLA remediation projects and has
lectured at professional
and business seminars on key environmental issues. He formerly was Senior
Counsel in the Legal Department
of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. While with DuPont, he was involved in
appeals of the ozone standard and the Ohio State Implementation Plan for Sulfur
Dioxide under the Clean Air Act.
Program info/registration
PSEG names five new vice presidents
Public Service
Enterprise Group (PSEG) today announced the
election of five new vice presidents in four of its subsidiaries.
The new senior
leaders and their areas of responsibility are:
- David J. Frank,
vice president-supply chain management, PSEG Services Corporation, effective
March 5.
He will report to Elbert C. Simpson, president and chief operating officer of
PSEG Services Corporation.
- J. Brian Smith, vice president-communications
and advertising, PSEG Services Corporation, effective
February 26. He will report to R. Edwin Selover, PSEG’s executive vice president
and general counsel.
- Frank C. Ameo, vice president-engineering and
operations support, PSEG Power, effective February 26.
He will report to Frank Cassidy, president of PSEG Power.
- Robert C. Braun, vice president-operations
support, PSEG Nuclear, effective March 5. He will report to William Levis,
president of PSEG Nuclear and chief nuclear officer.
- Raymond V. DePillo, vice president-power
operations and trading, PSEG Energy Resources & Trade,
effective February 26, and reporting to Kevin J. Quinn, president of PSEG Energy
Resources & Trade.
PSEG 2/26/07
PPL Corporation increases common stock dividend by 11 percent
PPL
Corporation on Friday
increased its common stock dividend by 11 percent. With this increase, the
dividend will have risen
130 percent over the past five years. The company has increased its quarterly
dividend from $0.275 to $0.305
per share, or from $1.10 to $1.22 per share on an annualized basis. The
increased dividend is payable April 1, 2007, to shareowners of record as of
March 9, 2007. This is the company’s 245th consecutive quarterly dividend and
the sixth consecutive year that PPL has increased the dividend. PPL increased
the dividend twice in 2005
and once in 2006, and the annualized dividend rate is up by 49 percent since the
start of 2005. Based on the company’s closing stock price Thursday of $36.95 per
share, Friday’s dividend increase would improve the
current yield on PPL common stock to 3.3 percent.
PPL 2/23/07
Toll Brothers quarterly profit falls sharply
Toll
Brothers Inc. says the weak U.S. housing market
drove down its quarterly profit by 67 percent after write-downs for lower land
values, and the luxury home
builder lowered its forecast. The company said it could not yet see a
rebound going into the industry's
spring selling season
Reuters
2/22/07
Sims Group acquires United Recycling Industries
The
board of directors for the Sims Group, the
largest scrap recycling company in the world, has approved the acquisition of
two electronics recycling
operations in North America. When the acquisitions are complete Sims notes that
it will be the largest
global recycler of electronic equipment. The company estimates that it will be
capable of handling around
25M computers, monitors, television sets, refrigerators, toner cartridges and
other e-scrap a year. Sims’
Recycling Solutions Division will acquire United Recycling Industries, a
Chicago-based electronics recycler.
The company provides a full range of services, including collection,
refurbishment and re-sale of equipment
chip recovery, mechanical processing of monitors, recycling of e-waste and
secondary smelting and refining
of high grade electronics. Completion of the acquisition is expected within the
next two weeks. The second acquisition is expected to be completed within the
next month. Sims has chosen not to announce that
company’s name as of yet.
Recycling
Today 2/21/07
Send your business or organization news to:
envirobusinessnews@enviropolitics.com
Sims Hugo Neu names new President of metals recycling in U.S.
Bob Kelman, who had most
recently served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of North East
Operations, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Kelman
will continue to be based in New York, where he also is responsible for
management of the company's curbside recycling contract with New York City. He
had nearly
20 years of industry experience with Hugo Neu Corporation prior to the merger of
its recycling operations with
Sims Group in November, 2005 2/21/07
$6 Million To Preserve Land In The
Pinelands
Conservation Resources Inc. (CRI) was recently awarded
the contract to administer the $6M Land Acquisition Program of the Pinelands
Conservation Fund. The Pinelands Conservation Fund was set up by the New Jersey
Pinelands Commission to help further protection of significant natural,
cultural, historic, and agricultural resources within several distinct areas of
the Pinelands. CRI will be identifying, screening, and recommending projects
that meet the criteria developed by the Commission. For
more information on the Pinelands Conservation Fund,
click here. 2/19/07
In Pennsylvania, small businesses cut power
bills by joining pools, switching suppliers
When Mark Raitano,
vice president of operations for Canonsburg-based
Strive Enterprises Inc., found out Penn Power
was preparing to raise electricity rates for his company's Greenville
manufacturing plant, he decided to see whether
he could get cheaper rates from other suppliers. By joining a pool of small and
midsize companies to switch electricity suppliers to Strategic Energy, Strive
Enterprises got a new contract that's expected to save his
company about $3,000.
Pittsburgh Business Times 2/19/07
PPG in wind energy venture
PPG Industries Inc.
agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture with
Devold AMT AS
to make fabrics used for wind turbine blades.
The joint venture
company, to be known as PPG-Devold LLC, will manufacture stitched fabrics
primarily for the North American wind energy market. PPG-Devold LLC will be
located in PPG facilities in Shelby, N.C., adjacent to the PPG glass fiber
plant. Pittsburgh-based PPG (NYSE:PPG), which makes coatings, chemicals
and glass, did not disclose financial terms of the deal. Devold is based in
Norway.
Pittsburgh Business Times 2/16/07
Cozen-Wolf Block merger not happening
The management
of
Cozen O'Connor and
Wolf Block Schorr & Solis-Cohen
said Tuesday that the law firms will not merge. The proposed union of 500-lawyer
Cozen and 300-lawyer Wolf Block would have been the largest-ever combination of
Philadelphia law firms and would have
created the largest Philadelphia law office. "As with many merger discussions
between major firms, business
and structural differences made completing a transaction difficult," the two
firms said in a statement. Cozen
CEO Patrick O'Connor declined to elaborate. He said the firms used Brad
Hildebrandt of Somerset, N.J.-based Hildebrandt International as a
third party consultant for the talks.
Philadelphia Business Journal 2/16/07
Covanta's China stake Covanta Holding of
Fairfield, NJ, is buying a stake in China's waste-to-energy market.
The company yesterday said it has signed an agreement to purchase a 40 percent
stake in Chongqing Sanfeng Environmental Industry, which operates and has
minority stakes in two garbage incinerators in Fujian Province.
The company's stake is roughly $15 million.
Star-Ledger 2/13/07
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Lawyer becomes only female executive at large Philadelphia law firm
The
Pepper Hamilton law
firm
said Monday it has elected Nina Gussack head of its executive
committee. As chairwoman, Gussack
will be responsible for major strategic initiatives at the firm such as mergers
and acquisitions. She replaces corporate rainmaker Barry M. Abelson, 60,
who has chaired the committee since 1995 while continuing to
practice law full time. Abelson will solely focus on his practice while also
consulting with management.
Philadelphia Business Journal 2/12/07
Campbell announces expansion of N.J. headquarters
Campbell Soup Co. said
Wednesday
that it will
spend up to $72M to expand its Camden, NJ, headquarters.
The expansion includes a new
80,000-square-foot employee services building and the construction of a 110-acre
office park to be
anchored by Campbell but also include other businesses
Philadelphia Business Journal 2/8/07
Gas utility's earnings drop
Earnings at New Jersey Resources
Corp., the parent company of New
Jersey Natural Gas, fell 18 percent in the first fiscal quarter, the company
said this morning. Earnings
fell to $28.1M,
or $1.01 per share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared to
$34.3M, or $1.23 per share,
for the last three months of 2005, the company said. Revenues fell 36 percent to
$741.5M in the period,
down from $1.2B a year earlier. The company said the decrease in profits was due
primarily to lower
earnings at its wholesale energy services subsidiary, NJR Energy Services. It
was partially offset by
improved results at New Jersey Natural Gas.
AP Press 2/7/07
American Water, group, to research automatic meter reading
American Water
said Monday
that a
team it leads has been awarded a grant of more than $900,000 to research
automatic meter reading
in the
water industry. The Voorhees, NJ, company, plus Cognyst Consulting
LLC of Kinnelon, NJ, and
Advantica Ltd.
of Loughborough, England, received the grant from the
Awwa Research Foundation of
Denver and the UK Water Industry Research. Awwa's goal is to help utilities and
public health agencies
work achieve clean and affordable drinking water for consumers.
Philadelphia Business Journal 2/6/07
Saul Ewing partner named to firm's executive committee
John F. Stoviak,
Partner in Saul Ewing’s Litigation and Environmental departments, has been
appointed to the firm’s Executive
Committee.
The six-attorney committee serves as the Firm’s managing body.
Mr. Stoviak is the outgoing Chair of the
Litigation Department and a former two-term Managing Partner of the Saul Ewing.
He concentrates his practice in complex commercial litigation and environmental
cases. With nearly 30 years of experience as a litigator, Mr. Stoviak has been
the lead trial attorney on numerous cases, including a major business valuation
case involving the nation’s third largest bankruptcy. Mr. Stoviak has handled a
variety of significant environmental matters and cases, earning him the
distinction as one of “America’s Leading Lawyers in Environmental Law” by
Chambers USA. Since 1993, he has been named to ‘The Best Lawyers in America”
and was designated a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer,” beginning in 2004. Mr.
Stoviak received his B.A. from Harvard University and earned his J.D. at
Dickinson School of Law. He will serve a five-year term on the Executive
Committee.
Saul Ewing
LLP is a full service law firm with 280 lawyers in eight offices in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia. The
Firm serves businesses throughout the United States and internationally,
including recognizable names in corporate America, exciting start-ups and an
array of closely held and privately held companies, as well as nonprofits,
governmental and educational entities.
een selected for inclusion in the Energy Law,
Environmental Law and Natural Resources Law sections of 
Science
as life Zachary D. Lewis says he
is one of only a handful of black environmental scientists
in New Jersey, and
he'd like that to change. "Part of our goal . . . is to continue
to educate our young people and encourage them," said Lewis, president of
Brilliant
Lewis Environmental Services LLC, headquartered in Lakewood. Since
receiving an environmental science degree from Stockton State College in 1983,
Lewis has worked
in a number of environmental and engineering firms in NJ. He
and Philip I. Brilliant
co-founded Brilliant Lewis Environmental Services, an
environ-mental consulting firm, in January 2006, Lewis said. The company has
offices in Lakewood, Pennsylvania
and Washington, D.C., Lewis said. Its services
include residential underground storage
tank work and municipal consulting.