LITTLE ROCK — PSC allows increase of CenterPoint rate
The Arkansas Public Service Commission approved a settlement with CenterPoint Energy on Thursday that will increase the utility's base rate about 4.6 percent over the next three years.
The settlement was for a $20 million increase, well below the $51 million Center-Point had sought in January.
The average Arkansas customer using 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas a month will see about a $3.24 increase in his gas bill.
CenterPoint and the PSC staff agreed to the settlement in September. Thursday's order was the commission's approval of that settlement.
It will not be known what the average Arkansan's monthly bill will be until next week, when CenterPoint and the state's two other natural gas providers - Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Co. and Arkansas Western Gas Co. - notify the commission of the gas costs they expect to incur for the winter.
NAACP manual gives Alltel a high mark
The NAACP Economic Reciprocity Initiative's Consumer Choice Guide ranked Alltel Corp. third among 56 U.S. public companies in five industries.
The guide is designed to help black Americans make informed choices about where to spend and invest money in the five industries - automotive, financial services, general merchandising, lodging and telecommunications.
Alltel received an overall 3.05 ranking, or a B, for its performance in black American employment, marketing and communications (which includes money spent on targeting black Americans), supplier diversity (which includes money spent with black American vendors), service deployment (which includes community involvement) and charitable giving.
Other Arkansas companies and their ranking were Wal-Mart, which received a 2.57, or C rating, and Dillard's, which received an F because it did not respond to the survey by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Only Wachovia, with a 3.24 rating, and Bank of America, with a 3.09 rating, ranked higher than Alltel.
Arkansas 20 off 2.27;
Acxiom takes tumble
The Arkansas 20, a priceweighted index that tracks public companies based in the state, dropped 2.27 to 210.21 Thursday.
"U.S. stocks closed lower for the second consecutive day, as oil futures set a new record close the day after a government report showed a drop in U.S. inventories," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. "The Arkansas 20 followed the broader markets lower, with 13 of 20 issues closing lower."
Acxiom, which reported a 50 percent drop in earnings after the market closed Wednesday, plummeted 7.3 percent to $13.14, a 52-week low.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business, Pages 35 on 10/26/2007