Free Republic

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Calpine Corp.'s (CPN) proposed partnership of its energy-trading operations with a major U.S. financial institution is a done deal with details to be announced in about a week, according to the company's chairman and chief executive, Peter Cartwright. As part of a broad financial reorganization the company announced two weeks ago, Calpine said it was in discussions to combine its marketing and trading operation, Calpine Energy Services, with the credit support of a major financial institution. The investment-grade partnership would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral being returned to the parent corporation, and...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Duke Energy Corp., headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., confirmed Wednesday that it plans to make major a announcement by week's end about the further reorganization and consolidation of its energy marketing and trading business, as well as other operational areas. Many Duke employees in Houston are expecting to be laid off, following the 1,500 or more layoffs that have already occurred companywide. Rumors were flying this week regarding the future of the company in Houston, where Duke Energy North America, also known as DENA, is headquartered. But company spokesman Bryant Kenny said...

<p>El Paso Corp. joined the "back-to-basics" movement among energy firms Wednesday, saying it is slashing its power trading business to limit financial risks and beef up its credit rating.</p> <p>As the Enron debacle continues to shake confidence in the energy sector among financial ratings agencies, El Paso executives said they are eliminating half the company's trading operation and shifting resources to El Paso's core natural-gas business.</p>

<p>Proclaiming their innocence, California's major power generators on Wednesday outlined for federal regulators some of the ways that plant owners profited from complex twists and turns in the state's electricity markets.</p> <p>Duke, Dynegy, Mirant, Reliant and Williams acknowledged their behavior shared some traits with the trading tricks detailed in Enron Corp. memos. All stressed they followed rules and did nothing wrong.</p>

Of all the accounting weirdness around--could anyone ever have dreamed that accounting would vie with pedophilia as front-page news?--the aspect that has most fundamentally affected the FORTUNE 500 is the handling of what are called "energy trading contracts." These things, almost single-handedly, made Enron one of the largest companies on our list--No. 7 in 2000 and No. 5 this year. These contracts have also caused many other energy and utility companies to show big to enormous increases in revenues from what they originally reported for 2000. A company many of our readers have most likely never heard of, Idacorp (formerly...