COURT BLOCKS EQUITABLE DEAL TO BUY DOMINION

(06/05/2007)

A federal appeals court has thrown up yet another roadblock to a deal that would make Equitable Resources Pennsylvania's largest natural gas utility. Equitable wants to buy Pittsburgh-based Dominion Peoples Gas as part of a $970 million deal that includes a Dominion company in West Virginia - the Clarksburg-based Dominion Hope, which serves 117,000 customers. The Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the deal. They claim it would create a harmful monopoly for the 600,000 customers that Equitable would then have in southwestern Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Pittsburgh had ruled the FTC has no business meddling in state regulatory matters. The FTC appealed that ruling, and now the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals has issued an emergency order blocking the sale.

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