Date posted online: Friday, November 02, 2007
NIPSCO not selling, it's buying

  Five months after NIPSCO was taken off the sales block, the utility has announced it wants to expand its electric generation by buying two power plants for a combined $539 million.

One of those is the controversial Whiting Clean Energy plant, which is owned by NIPSCO parent NiSource Inc. Previous NIPSCO efforts to buy the plant were fought by consumer groups, which feared it would hike electric rates.

Now, NIPSCO is hopeful a settlement with those groups reached in October will pave the way for bringing Whiting into the NIPSCO fold, NiSource CEO Robert Skaggs Jr. told Wall Street analysts on Friday.

NiSource also reported a 57 percent drop in third quarter earnings on Friday, with much of that due to a one-time $16.2 million set-aside for the October settlement with consumer groups.

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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the views of The Times or Lee Enterprises.

 

Consumer wrote on Nov 2, 2007 4:34 PM:

" How does one perchase something from their parent company. Wouldn't that be like a teenager getting a good deal on a car from their parents that they already let them use anyway??? "

Confused wrote on Nov 2, 2007 3:01 PM:

" NIPSCO not selling, it's buying from it's parent NiSource Inc. Why doesn't NiSource just GIVE JIPSCO the damn company? Haven't they been a good enough 'child' and increase our rates enough for the parent??? "

Hmmmm wrote on Nov 2, 2007 2:54 PM:

" Im sure this will be just what we need to bring our prices down...... hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha "

Typical wrote on Nov 2, 2007 1:56 PM:

" It figures that NIPSCO found the money to buy two more power plants. I knew they weren't hurting for money! Sad thing is, our bills are going to skyrocket. I'm having a terrible sense of deja` vu... "

 

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