As you all may know, we have scheduled a conference call for the group for 
Thursday, Oct. 19.  Bernadette called each of your assistants, so it should 
be on your calendars.

As a brief update prior to our call:

We have a phone call in to FERC to check on the procedural status of the 
merger.  Donna Fulton, my colleague in Washington, has many contacts at FERC 
and is working with those people to learn what she can about the status of 
our proceeding.  

Joanne is supposed to be meeting with Bob Wasson at the SEC (along with Bill 
Weedon) early next week to get a sense of where the SEC is on the case.

Per Rick's suggestion, I have asked another colleague of mine in Washington, 
Chris Long, to help us decide who would be the appropriate person to make 
contact at the SEC if we decide to make that contact.  Chris is working with 
some political operatives on this.

We have been working with Portland General and Sierra on their RTO filing.  
As you may recall, a commitment to join an RTO (Regional Transmission 
Organization) is one of the things FERC will require of the merging parties.  
An RTO filing will be made at FERC on October 23.  While RTO progress has 
been good so far, Sierra and PGE have indicated that they may have concerns 
with the RTO they are working with (the Northwest RTO).  We are working with 
Sierra and PGE to make sure that they do not do anything in the RTO 
proceeding that could cause concern for FERC regarding the companies' 
commitment to join an RTO.

There was some question about the status of a temporary services company 
being created by the merged company.  Joanne has been working with the Sierra 
and PGE people on this issue and does not see this as being a problem now, 
but I have asked her for confirmation that this "alternative" type of service 
company arrangement will not delay the SEC proceeding.  I am waiting for a 
response from Joanne.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  

Sarah