Bert Caldwell

A proposed pipeline from Puget Sound to the Tri-Cities will bolster sometimes critically short fuel supplies in Eastern Washington, a spokeswoman for the Cross Cascade Pipeline Co. said Friday. But an opponent said the $105 million project will succeed only by forcing competitors out of the market, setting the stage for monopoly pricing. Joann Hamick and David Bricklin discussed the pipeline before a small Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce audience. The chamber may vote next month on whether to endorse the project.

Washington Water Power Co. Friday asked Washington regulators to approve a 15.6 percent rate increase for residential users of natural gas. Other customer classes face smaller hikes. Senior Rate Analyst Don Falkner said a second filing is expected in August. That, and a companion filing in Idaho, will cover the higher prices the company has paid to its gas suppliers in the last year.

With coarse sediment chewing on its turbines, Washington Water Power Co. wants to drill a bypass pipe through Nine Mile Dam. An environmental coordinator for the project says that already the company has been forced to shut down a turbine installed at the facility just three years ago when the bearings failed. Rod Pharness, the coordinator, said heavy runoff the last two years has carried coarse sediment that normally settles out of the water upstream right to the dam.

WWP project manager Harold Wilkinson prepares to open the doors on the fuel cell installed at the downtown Doubletree Hotel. It is the first commercial fuel cell sited anywhere in the Northwest. Photo by Torsten Kjellstrand/The Spokesman-Review

When Montana deregulates its electricity industry next July, Avista Energy will be there peddling megawatts. The Washington Water Power Co. subsidiary Monday announced formation of a joint venture with Energy West Inc., a natural gas and propane marketer based in Great Falls. Energy West serves about 25,000 customers in Montana, most in the Great Falls area. The state's two largest university campuses, an oil refinery, talc plant and other industrial customers boost the company's share of the total Montana natural gas market to about 40 percent, said Jim Morin, Energy West manager of sales and marketing.

Dakotah Direct Inc. could add several hundred jobs in Spokane as a result of a merger announced Monday with a new East Coast tele communications company. The five-year-old Spokane telemarketing company will become a unit of Genesis Teleserv Corp., based outside Philadelphia in West Conshohocken, Penn. Mike Kuhn, Dakotah's president, and Larry Martin, president of Dakotah Reservation Services Inc., will become senior vice presidents of Genesis, as well as part owners.

Itron Inc. has landed one of its largest contracts ever, a $100 million deal with the City of Philadelphia for reading water meters. The project, approved by the city council Thursday, is also the largest contract covering water metering ever undertaken by a North American public utility. Itron spokeswoman Mima Scarpelli said the bulk of the revenues - $65 million - will cover installation of 487,000 new meters equipped with company modules that read and transmit information on water use.

Federal officials have stepped up oversight of municipal bond markets to protect the increasing number of investors who own the securities, the head of that effort said Wednesday. Paul Maco, director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Office of Municipal Securities, said individuals now own 73 percent of the $1.3 trillion in bonds and other paper issued by states, cities and other taxation districts. Broad ownership, much of it through mutual funds, has made it more likely a resident of Washington, for example, directly or indirectly owns bonds issued by distant governments, he said.

Jim Hunter and his company are 100 percent behind their clients. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review

Pacific Gas Transmission Co. crews fuse part of the 2,000 feet of high-pressure gas line that the company is replacing above Westmond, Idaho. Photo by Craig Buck/The Spokesman-Review

Murphey Favre Inc., a name with a history that dates back almost to the founding of Spokane, will disappear next month. The broker-dealer for the Composite Group of Funds will become Washington Mutual Financial Services Inc.

Inland Northwest businesses that have focused their export efforts on Pacific Rim countries should look next toward South America, two U.S. trade officials suggested Thursday. Michael Liikala and Miquel Pardo de Zela said the economic and political changes where they are posted, Argentina and Brazil, respectively, are indicative of reforms sweeping the region. The shift from dictatorial, closed systems to democratic and open environments has created huge export opportunities, Liikala said.

Williams

Users of AT&T; calling cards are no longer automatically connected with that carrier when they pick up a pay phone. As of Sunday, AT&T; cardholders must dial a special access number, 1-800-CALL-ATT, to get to a company operator. Previously, dialing 0 reached an operator who would connect the caller with AT&T.; No more.

McKean

Residents of far northwestern Montana may not get their lights back on until Friday as crews rebuild transmission lines smashed by Saturday's powerful winds. Power in most other areas of the Inland Northwest was restored by late Monday, but utility officials predicted scattered outages would keep isolated homes in the dark until today. As many as 30,000 people may have been without electricity in the hours immediately following Saturday's brief but intense storm, which the National Weather Service on Monday said included one official sighting of a tornado.

Some of the answers to the Northwest's energy future may lie in its past, former Sen. Mark Hatfield told regional planners Friday. Many of the issues now on the table were vehemently debated at the dawn of the federal power system in the 1930s, Hatfield said at a conference on energy deregulation.

The Snohomish County Public Utility District and Idaho Power Co. have signed an agreement that calls for joint efforts to develop and market energy and energy services. The deal, said Idaho Power Chairman Joseph Marshall, will help both utilities maintain their independence as competition reshapes the industry. He said the alliance between the PUD and Idaho Power also will allow both to spread costs of new services over a broader customer base.

Consumer groups Wednesday condemned a litany of tactics they said US West Communications uses to foil competitors and confound consumers more than a year after passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was supposed to deregulate the industry. From access fees to the Yellow Pages, they said, the provider of local telephone service in 14 Western states has tried to maintain its monopoly and squeeze more revenues from captive consumers. "This is the strongest indictment yet that US West has been blocking competition," said Judy Krebs, associate director of Washington Citizen Action and one of the authors of a 16-page report entitled "US West's Monopoly Game."

A Washington, D.C., investor Friday filed a class-action suit against Itron Inc., alleging the Spokane company misrepresented its technology and the reasons sales were below expectations. The result, says the U.S. District Court complaint, was a wild climb for Itron stock, which peaked at $60 on April 30, 1996, followed by a free-fall to $15 Oct. 23, 1996. Investor losses, according to attorney Steve Toll, total millions of dollars. Plaintiff Mark Epstein bought 100 shares at $32.50 apiece in January 1996.

Ron Stokes, left, and Greg Somers flank "Buddy", the only member of the staff to wear a tie. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review

Second of two parts Break up the monopoly game. Although Northwest residents can't pick their power company yet, the day is coming when utilities that once had an unchallenged grip on their customers will have to compete for every household. Many companies that never before sold electricity in the region are moving into position. Familiar names such as Bonneville Power Administration, Portland General Electric and Washington Water Power Co. soon will be joined by the likes of Enron, Cinergy, even Southern.

The gist of Ronald Reuss' message is simple - go long. The senior vice president for Piper Jaffray Companies said money placed in overseas markets or 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds may yield the best returns in the coming months. By historic standards, he said, U.S. stocks are fully valued. With inflation around 2 percent, as it is now, the 7 percent yields on bonds are very attractive, Reuss said. And the slowdown already gripping the economy could drop rates below 6 percent by the end of the year, which will increase the value of bonds bought now.

Area electric cooperatives will receive government compensation for some costs stemming from the November ice storm. Kootenai Electric Cooperative Inc. collected $1.7 million Tuesday from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Idaho Department of Disaster Services. About 75 percent of the money was provided by FEMA, said Kootenai spokeswoman Catherine Parochetti. The cooperative spent $2 million repairing damage from the storm, which knocked out power for more than two weeks in some areas.