Union asks for study of post office’s future

October 17, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

washington

The post office’s largest union said Sunday it is hiring its own financial consultants to study the future of the financially strapped agency.

The National Association of Letter Carriers said it is hiring the investment bank Lazard Group LLC and former White House adviser Ron Bloom as consultants on the future of the post office. Bloom is a former assistant to President Barack Obama for manufacturing policy.

The Postal Service lost $8 billion in 2010 and the picture is likely to be worse when details of fiscal 2011 are released next month. The agency has proposed cutting mail delivery to five days a week, closing thousands of offices and cutting its staff by as many as 200,000.

Kinder Morgan to buy El Paso for $20B

new york

Kinder Morgan plans to buy El Paso Corp. in a $20.7 billion deal that’s expected to create America’s largest natural-gas pipeline operator.

Kinder Morgan Inc. is expanding its reach as the U.S. becomes increasingly reliant on natural gas. Drillers are pumping ever-increasing amounts from underground shale deposits across the U.S. Natural-gas prices have dropped to less than half their level of three years ago, and power companies are using more of the fuel because it emits fewer greenhouse gases than coal.

Kinder Morgan will more than double the size of its pipeline network by purchasing El Paso.

Company questions cut-rate gasoline

dubai, united arab emirates

When its gasoline pumps started going dry in the United Arab Emirates’ poorer northern states earlier this year, Dubai’s oil company blamed mysterious service upgrades.

Few believed that at the time, and now the company is dropping its subtlety, triggering an uncharacteristically public spat over fuel-pricing policies.

By letting its farther-flung stations run empty, the Emirates National Oil Co., or ENOC, was telegraphing a message: The Dubai government-owned firm was tired of driving itself deeper into the red by shouldering money-losing state fuel subsidies that keep pump prices artificially low.

In an unusually strongly worded statement over the weekend, the company said that continuing to cover subsidies mandated by the UAE’s federal government “is clearly not sustainable or viable for the company.”

Vindicator wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Aqua America, .66, 21.43 —0.17

Avalon Holdings,2.410.00

Clear Channel, .65 53.33 —0.15

Cortland Bancorp, 7.35—0.15

Farmers Nat.4.41 —0.30

First Energy, 2.20, 44.30+0.54

FirstMerit Corp., .64,12.52 +0.18

First Niles Financial, .32,7.400.00

First Place Fin., 0.79—0.01

FNB Corp., .48,9.27+0.04

General Motors,24.16+1.01

General Electric, .60,16.60+0.38

Motors Liquidation, 0.04220.00

Huntington Bank, .16, 5.23—0.01

JP Morgan Chase, 1.00,31.89+0.29

Key Corp, .12,6.51—0.05

LaFarge, 9.98 +0.04

Macy’s, .40, 29.26+0.91

Parker Hannifin, 1.48, 73.61+1.33

PNC, 1.40,51.16—0.12

RTI Intl. Metals,25.64+0.37

Simon Prop. Grp.,3.20,115.89+2.70

Stoneridge 6.20 +0.06

United Community Fin. 1.21—0.07

Selected prices at 4 p.m. Friday. Provided by Stifel Nicolaus. Not to be construed as an offer or recommendation to buy or sell any security.