Business digest

REGION

FirstEnergy is seeking to consolidate assets

AKRON — FirstEnergy has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to consolidate its transmission assets and operations into PJM Interconnection. Currently, the company’s transmission assets and operations are divided between PJM and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator.

The company announced plans for the consolidation July 31, and has asked the regulatory commission to rule on its request by Dec. 17.

The consolidation would move the transmission assets that are part of FirstEnergy’s American Transmission Systems subsidiary, which are located within the footprint of FirstEnergy’s Ohio utilities and Pennsylvania Power, into PJM.

Most of FirstEnergy’s transmission assets in Pennsylvania and those in New Jersey already operate as part of PJM.

If approved, the consolidation would provide customers with the benefits of a more fully developed retail choice market, and the company with the operating efficiencies of a single regional transmission organization, company officials said.

Ohio’s corn harvest is estimated at near record

COLUMBUS — The government’s latest estimate looks for a near- record corn harvest from Ohio farmers, despite harsh spring weather that got this year’s crop in the ground late.

Dwayne Siekman, executive director of the Ohio Corn Growers Association, says the U.S. Department of Agriculture now expects the state’s farmers to produce 532 million bushels of corn, an average yield of 165 bushels per acre.

The state’s largest corn crop on record was 541 million bushels, an average of 150 bushels per acre, in 2007.

Siekman says Ohio farmers made up for the lost time during planting season through technology that allows them to produce more corn per acre. He adds that mild weather during the growing season also helped this year’s crop.

NATION

Utah coal operator aims for access to coal seams

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah coal operator is tunneling into a cliff face to access rich coal seams at Lila Canyon in the Book Cliffs region.

Also in the same coal belt, UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp., is seeking a federal lease to expand operations at the Aberdeen mine, seven miles north of Price.

The Bureau of Land Management says it’s calculating the value of the 42.2 million tons of coal UtahAmerican wants to buy.

The Lila Canyon operation is unusual. From the base of the Book Cliffs, the company is blasting a set of uphill tunnels to reach a 13-foot-thick coal seam inside the mountain.

The tunneling has advanced nearly halfway to the coal seam 1,200 feet away.

Projection sees a drop in U.S. cranberry production

BOSTON — The nation’s cranberry production is projected to drop by 10 percent from last year’s record-breaking crop, even as worldwide demand for the berry rises. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual report on cranberries, released Tuesday, estimated a crop of 7.09 million barrels in 2009, compared with 7.87 million in 2008.

The state with the largest decrease was Massachusetts, where the crop was expected to fall 20 percent, to 1.90 million barrels. The report blamed cool, wet weather.

Vindicator staff/wire reports