EnviroPolitics
A daily compendium of environmental and
political information
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EnviroBusiness News….
June, 2006
Penn arboretum gets state grant The
University of Pennsylvania's
Morris Arboretum said
Friday it has received a $4.65 million grant from the state of Pennsylvania to
build a new
horticulture center at its Bloomfield Farm. The grant was announced by Gov. Ed
Rendell at the
arboretum's annual fundraiser earlier this month and launches the public phase
of the arboretum's
fundraising campaign for the building, which it expects to have completed by
2009. The arboretum
estimates the center will cost $10M and wants to raise an additional $2M for an
endowment for it.
Philadelphia Business Journal 6/26/2006
Foster Wheeler wins contract in India for design of world's largest
delayed coker
Foster Wheeler Ltd. (Nasdaq: FWLT) announced today that its subsidiary Foster
Wheeler USA
Corporation, part of its Global Engineering and Construction Group, has been
awarded a contract
for a new eight-drum delayed coking unit to be installed as part of the Jamnagar
Export Refinery
Project at the Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat
State, India, where
Reliance Group's first refinery was also built and has been operating since
1998. The project will
approximately double the Reliance Group's crude refining capacity. The new
refinery will be the
largest single stream petroleum refinery in the world. Foster Wheeler's scope
includes process
and detailed engineering for the new coker, which is expected to commence
operations in 2008.
Foster Wheeler also designed Reliance's first refinery's existing
eight-drum coker, which is the
world's largest operating coker and started up in 1998. Foster Wheeler is based
in Hamilton,
Bermuda, and its operational headquarters are in Clinton, NJ
News release 6/26/2006
Aqua America subsidiary settles for smaller rate increase
Typical
Aqua Pennsylvania Inc.
customers in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and 20 other Pennsylvania
counties will see
their annual water bills increase to $495 -- an increase of $40 -- under a
settlement approved by the
Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission. The settlement was between Aqua
Pennsylvania and parties
that objected to the company's original rate proposal, which would have boosted
the average customer's
annual bill to about $520. The parties that objected included the state's
Consumer Advocate, Small
Business Advocate, municipalities and customers.
Philadelphia Business Journal 6/23/2006
Linn pays $30M for West Virginia energy properties
Linn Energy LLC said it paid $30M
for three oil and natural gas properties in West Virginia, and a natural gas
pipeline in Western
Pennsylvania. The Mount Lebanon, PA-based
natural gas company (NASDAQ: LINE) also said
its lenders increased its borrowing base under a $400M secured revolving credit
facility to $265M
from $235M.
Pittsburgh Business Times 6/22/2006
CONSOL to supply coal to FirstEnergy
CONSOL Energy Inc. said it would supply
more than
128M tons of high-BTU coal to
FirstEnergy Corp. over 20 years, starting in 2009.
Under the new
agreement, which replaces one that began in 2003, CONSOL will increase coal
shipments by 2M
tons per year to provide coal for FirstEnergy's Bruce Mansfield Plant in
Shippingport, Penn., as well
as other power plants.
Pittsburgh Business Times 6/22/2006
$16B expansion plan to hike NRG's capacity
NRG Energy said yesterday it will spend
$16B during 10 years to boost electricity-generating capacity for the country's
most energy-hungry
regions, including the Northeast. The Princeton, NJ company said the
expansion will boost its
generating capacity 46 percent. NRG is known in its industry as a merchant power
generator, which
means it operates power plants and sells the electricity to utility companies
that ultimately sell power
to consumers and business customers.
Star-Ledger 6/22/2006
PA energy firm gets $117M in funding A
mining and gas drilling company announced Tuesday
that it has received $117M in funding to expand its business.
Targe Energy, an Aspinwall, PA.-based
surface coal mining, gas drilling and coal reclamation company, received the
bulk of the funding from
the New York-based Carlyle/Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund III,
L.P. Targe operates surface
mines in Northern Appalachia. Carlyle/Riverstone provided $100 million of
Targe's expansion equity;
the other $17.5M came from various minority investors and management.
Carlyle/Riverstone is co-owned
by
Riverstone Holdings LLC and the
Carlyle Group. Riverstone conducts buyouts and capital investments
in the energy industry. To date, Riverstone has committed $2B in energy
investments. The Carlyle Group,| based in New York City, is a global
private equity firm with $35B under management. According to Targe,
the $117M in new investments will allow the company to expand its coal and waste
coal businesses
and to drill for coal bed methane in the Appalachian Basin.
Pittsburgh Business Times 6/21/2006
Wind farm company with local NY ambitions gets Texas project funded
The Irish company
that wants to build a 40 to 50 megawatt wind farm in northern Saratoga County,
NY is getting $120M
GE Energy Financial Services and two other backers for a similar project in
West Texas. Fortis Capital
and Wells Fargo will join with GE Energy Financial Services in project equity
support for the 125 mw
wind farm Airtricity has under construction in Forest Creek TX. Work on the
project began in April and
is due to be completed by the end of the year.
Airtricity, of Dublin, announced plans in 2005 to
invest
$1.5B in the U.S. electricity market. The company wants to spend $80-$90M to put
25 wind turbines
on Kayderossas Ridge in Greenfield, NY.
The Business Review (Albany) 6/21/2006
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BP, DuPont expect to begin selling biofuel starting next year
BP P.L.C., Europe's biggest
oil company, and DuPont Co., the Wilmington chemical-maker, said they expected
to sell their first
biofuels starting next year, cutting vehicle emissions partly blamed for global
climate change. The
venture will first produce biobutanol, the companies said in a statement. BP and
DuPont are working
with British Sugar to build the plant, which will make biobutanol, an additive
that can be easily blended
with existing fuels.- Bloomberg News
New CFO for Allegheny Energy
Allegheny Energy Inc. said CFO Jeff
Serkes is leaving the
company, effective July 7, and named Philip Goulding to replace him.
The Greensburg, PA.-based
electric utility (NYSE:AYE) said it was the 47-year-old Serkes' decision to
resign, and attributed it
to a "desire to return to his family and home in Connecticut."
Pittsburgh Business Times 9/20/2006
New owner for former BASF site in NJ
BASF's former U.S. headquarters in Morris County,
New Jersey, a campus with nearly 1 million square feet of vacant
office space, was purchased
Friday by a company that wants to fill it with up to four large tenants. The
German chemical giant
moved out of the Mount Olive, NJ complex about two years ago, saying the
headquarters, which
can accommodate 3,000 employees, was simply too large. BASF moved its operations
to
Florham Park, NJ. It could be leased to a single tenant or divided to
accommodate up to four
tenants, said Robert Donnelly Jr. associate director for Cushman & Wakefield's
Metropolitan
Area Capital Markets Group, which helped broker the deal. The 97-acre site
includes five
interconnected buildings constructed in 1994 and 1998. The property is part of
the International
Trade Center, a 680-acre corporate park off Route 80 that is home to BMW, Coty,
Federal
Express and Seiko, among others.
Bergen Record 6/20/2006
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Exelon and PSEG provide merger update
Exelon Corporation (NYSE: EXC) and
Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (NYSE: PEG) announced today that
they
are continuing their efforts to obtain approval of their proposed merger before
the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ) and New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU).
Under the
Exelon/PSEG Merger Agreement, either party has the option to terminate the
transaction
without penalty at any time after June 20, 2006. However, both companies will
continue
their efforts to obtain the necessary regulatory approvals. Neither Exelon nor
PSEG has
taken any action to terminate the Merger Agreement or extend the June 20, 2006
date
in the Merger Agreement. Press
release 6/19/2006
Mirant dropped NRG bid over shareholder pressure
Mirant said pressure from
shareholders contributed to its decision to drop its bid for fellow power
producer NRG Energy
and said it isn't considering other acquisitions.
Star-Ledger 6/18/2006
Reed Smith, Richards Butler partners OK merger
Partners at
Reed Smith LLP and
Richards Butler overwhelmingly approved the merger of the two law firms, a
transaction that
will rank it among the 20 largest firms in the world with more than 1,300
lawyers. The deal will
give Pittsburgh-based Reed Smith offices in Greece and the Middle East.
Richards Butler is
based in London, a market Reed Smith entered five years ago, thus making that
city home to
the largest concentration of the firm's lawyers.
Pittsburgh Business Times 6/15/2006
U.S. Filter involved in Israeli water deal
U.S. Filter will play a key role in an
agreement
signed Thursday between parent company
Siemens AG and Israel's national water company
Mekorot. U.S. Filter, based in Warrendale, PA., and with annual sales
of more than $1.2B,
will work with the Israeli company on water treatment solutions for countries
located in arid
regions.
Pittsburgh Business Journal 6/15/2006
Foster
Wheeler awarded pulverized-coal boiler
contract
Foster
Wheeler Ltd. announced
today that Foster Wheeler North America Corp., an operating unit of its Global
Power Group,
has been awarded a contract for a pulverized-coal (PC) boiler by Salt River
Project Agricultural
Improvement and Power District (SRP). The contract, valued in excess of $65M,
calls for Foster
Wheeler to design and supply a 400 megawatt PC boiler for the Springerville
Generating
Station in Arizona. The unit will be owned by SRP and operated by Tucson
Electric. The award
will be included in Foster Wheeler's second-quarter 2006 bookings. This is the
second boiler
supplied by Foster Wheeler for the Springerville Generating Station. The
previous 400 MWe boiler,
supplied to an ownership team including SRP, is currently in the start-up phase.
News release
6/14/2006
New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont form dairy cooperative
New York state Agriculture
Commissioner Patrick Brennan and his counterparts in Pennsylvania and Vermont
have entered
into an agreement to work cooperatively to enhance the dairy industries in all
three states. The
three states together make up one of the country's major milk producing regions.
Collectively,
they produce over 25 billion pounds of milk annually, nearly 15 percent of the
nation's total milk
supply.
Pittsburgh
Business Times 6/14/2006
Kushner Cos. evaluating $2B purchase bid
When Charles Kushner returns to work
in September, he may have plenty of cash to spend. Alan Hammer, acting chairman
of
Kushner Cos., confirmed yesterday the Florham Park, NJ-based real estate empire
is
considering numerous bids valued at more than $2B for its portfolio of rental
apartments
Star-Ledger
Bergen Record 6/13/2006
James Estrin/The New York Times
Standing atop a condominium tower under construction at the Newport complex in
Jersey City, Richard LeFrak looked south at a forest of green-glass commercial
towers
and brick residential buildings that seem to leap from the waterfront. His
family and
their partner built them, 20 in all. Although the LeFraks cannot lay claim to
the tallest
tower (the 800-foot Goldman Sachs building at Paulus Hook), they have built more
than a third of the high-rise skyline that has grown up along Jersey City's once
dilapidated waterfront. And today, exactly 20 years after his father, Sam,
embarked
on a seemingly quixotic bid to transform these rusty old railroad yards into
Newport,
Mr. LeFrak is announcing plans for another hotel and four more apartment towers.
New York
Times 6/1/2006
Send your business or organization news to:
envirobusinessnews@enviropolitics.com
Previous months:
Enviro-Business - May 2006
Enviro-Business - April
2006
Enviro-Business -
March 2006
Enviro-Business -
February 2006
Enviro-Business
- January 2006
Try a free, 30-day, trial subscription to EnviroPolitics
The best way to explore all that
EnviroPolitics has to offer is to read it every
business day for a full month.
And now you can. Get your
30-day, no-obligation,
no-commitment, trial subscription just for the asking.